Sunseap International and InfraCo Asia Partner to Form Joint Venture for Solar Power Project in Vietnam

February 14, 2018
As the first large-scale solar project to go online in
Vietnam, the Ninh Thuan solar project will tap into
Vietnam's significant solar potential, generate employment
opportunities and contribute to a cleaner energy mix for the
country.
Sunseap International, the international arm of Singapore's
leading clean energy provider Sunseap Group, has signed an
agreement with InfraCo Asia Development Pte Ltd (InfraCo
Asia) to jointly develop a 168 MegaWatt-peak (MWp)
utility-scale solar power project in Vietnam.
The solar project is in the Ninh Thuan province, on the
south-central coast of Vietnam. It is one of the first
large-scale solar projects in the country. The annual amount
of electricity generated is expected to be able to power up
to 200,000 households in the country.
InfraCo Asia, an infrastructure development and investment
company of the Private Infrastructure Development Group,
will bring its leadership expertise and provide funding for
the development phase of the project.
Sunseap International will continue to hold a majority stake
in the project, while InfraCo Asia will take a minority
stake alongside Sunseap's existing partner, CMX RE Canada.
The project is expected to reach commercial operation by
June 2019. During the construction phase, the solar power
project will create jobs for more than 200 local workers.
Approximately 30 long-term jobs will be sustained when the
project is in operation.
Mr Lawrence Wu, Co-Founder and Director of Sunseap, said:
"We are delighted to have received the support of InfraCo
Asia for our first project in Vietnam. We see huge potential
for solar energy development in Vietnam and are excited to
bring affordable and reliable clean energy to the country.
"Sunseap International remains focused on developing
innovative solar energy solutions that benefit communities
in the region while saving the environment. We hope that our
solar power project will help to promote more green energy
investments in Vietnam and in the Indo-China region."
Mr Allard Nooy, CEO of InfraCo Asia, said: "As the
opportunity for renewables in Vietnam continues to grow, we
are excited to partner with Sunseap on a project that will
serve as a catalyst for further private sector investment.
The Ninh Thuan project will be one of the first large-scale
solar projects in the country to go online. It will support
Vietnam – which is currently reliant on coal – in creating a
cleaner energy mix for the future.
"Projects like Ninh Thuan solar create a 'demonstration
effect' that serves as a beacon for future development.
InfraCo Asia is proud to serve as a clean energy pioneer in
Vietnam and throughout the South and South East Asia
regions."
Electricity demand in Vietnam is growing 12 percent
annually. According to the Vietnamese Government's targets,
solar power is expected to become the main new renewable
energy source in the future, with installed capacity to be
increased from around 6-7 MW at end of 2017 to 850 MW by
2020, accounting for 1.6 percent of the country's power
generation and 12,000 MW by 2030 or 3.3 percent of the
country's power generation.
In April 2017, Vietnam fixed the price of solar power at
9.35 US cents/kilowatt hour. The government set a June 2019
deadline for solar power plants to be built and connected to
the grid by to receive this guaranteed solar feed-in tariff
price.
Sunseap is one of the largest and most established players
in the solar energy industry in the region. It has a
pipeline of projects in Cambodia, India, Thailand, Vietnam,
Malaysia and Australia.
InfraCo Asia is an infrastructure development and investment
company which aims to stimulate greater private sector
investment in infrastructure in the low-income developing
countries of South and South East Asia. It funds
pre-financial close, early stage and high-risk
infrastructure development activities by taking an equity
stake in socially responsible and commercially viable
infrastructure projects that contribute to economic growth,
social development and poverty reduction.
-The End-
About Sunseap Group
Sunseap Group is the leading solar energy system developer,
owner and operator in Singapore. It operates through three
key units: Sunseap Leasing, Sunseap International and
Sunseap Energy. Sunseap Leasing is the first and largest
solar leasing company in Singapore. Sunseap International
targets markets in the South East Asian and Pacific regions.
These include a 140 MegaWatt-peak (MWp) solar farm in India
and a 10 MWp solar farm in Cambodia. Sunseap Energy provides
clean energy solutions utilising off-site arrangements by
drawing on solar systems within the Group's portfolio of
distributed generation assets. A notable client is Apple,
which recently signed an agreement with Sunseap to procure
100% of its local energy requirements from renewable
sources.
About InfraCo Asia
InfraCo Asia Development Pte Ltd (InfraCo Asia) is a
commercially managed infrastructure development and
investment company of the Private Infrastructure Development
Group (PIDG). Headquartered in Singapore, it aims to
stimulate greater private sector investment in
infrastructure in South and South East Asia. InfraCo Asia
funds high-risk infrastructure development activities by
taking an equity stake with a focus on socially responsible
and commercially viable infrastructure projects that
contribute to economic growth, social development and
poverty reduction. At the appropriate time, either as close
as possible to financial close and/or commercial operation,
InfraCo Asia aims to (partially or fully, as appropriate)
exit each project. It does this through the sale of its
stake to the private sector in order to catalyse private
sector investment and participation into the projects and
countries it is involved in.
InfraCo Asia is currently funded by three members of PIDG –
the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
(DFAT), the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs
(SECO) and the UK Department for International Development
(UKAid).
About the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG)
The Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG)
encourages and mobilises private investment in
infrastructure in the frontier markets of sub-Saharan
Africa, south and south-east Asia, to help promote economic
development and combat poverty. Since 2002, PIDG has
supported 154 infrastructure projects to financial close and
provided 222 million people with access to new or improved
infrastructure. PIDG is funded by donors from seven
countries (UK, Switzerland, Australia, Norway, Sweden,
Netherlands, Germany) and the World Bank Group.
For more information, please visit www.infracoasia.com and www.pidg.org.
Media Contacts
Sunseap Group Pte Ltd
Sebastian Wang
Tel: +65 6602 8086
Email: corpcomms@sunseap.com
InfraCo Asia
Allard Nooy
Tel: +65 6823 8050
Email: allard.nooy@infracoasia.com
Catherine Ong Associates (for Sunseap media
enquiries)
Catherine Ong
Tel: +65 6327 6088
Email: cath@catherineong.com
Jaslin Tan
Tel: +65 6327 6086
Email: jaslin@catherineong.com