Vietnam’s emerging wind energy industry has received a major boost after the country’s Development Bank this week announced it has secured a $1bn loan to fund the development of wind farms in the Mekong Delta over the next four years.
Officials announced they have signed a letter of credit with the Export-Import Bank of the US that means the US bank will provide loans and act as a guarantor when the Vietnam Development Bank accesses finance from other international banks.
A statement for the bank confirmed the loan would be used to fund the construction of a wave of new wind farms, including a project in the Bac Lieu Province, which will purchase turbines from US engineering giant General Electric.
The deal follows a government announcement on Monday confirming it was committed to developing new wind energy infrastructure in the provinces of Bac Lieu, Soc Trang and Kien Giang in the Mekong Delta region.
In related news, German turbine manufacturer Nordex today announced that it has secured orders from four wind farm developers in Pakistan for up to 250MW of turbines.
The company said the deals were subject to approval from the Pakistani authorities, but if they are rubberstamped the contracts will make Nordex the largest supplier to Pakistan’s emerging wind energy market.
The new projects are to be located in the Sindh Province in the south of the country, where according to government estimates up to 11GW of wind energy capacity could be exploited.
“Pakistan is the most important Asian market outside China for Nordex today,” said company CSO Lars Bondo Krogsgaard. “The fact that we were able to sign contracts with four customers at the same time shows that we are already a very trusted supplier there.”
