MANILA, Philippines — Ayala-led ACEN Corp. is further strengthening its presence in Australia with the development of a 936-megawatt (MW) wind farm targeted for commercial operations by 2030.
“That’s the Valley of the Winds project in New South Wales. The Australian government actually bid out capacity contracts to enable renewables,” ACEN president and CEO Eric Francia said in a recent interview.
ACEN, through ACEN Australia, recently secured a capacity investment scheme agreement (CISA) from the Australian government during the latest and largest tender round.
Similar to the Philippines’ green energy auction, CISA is a program designed to attract investments in renewable energy generation and dispatchable storage.
The scheme holds competitive tenders to choose projects that offer the best financial value and align with Australia’s energy reliability and emissions reduction targets.
“(The program) is a slightly different structure, but it enables these renewables projects. So we won that. That’s huge; that’s a very big project,” Francia said.
Valley of the Winds, which is 95 percent owned by ACEN, is the “largest” among the 19 projects that secured contracts, the executive said.
The wind project, with the potential for expansion and integration of a battery energy storage system, is expected to generate enough power to supply around 500,000 Australian homes annually.
During the construction phase, Valley of the Winds is seen opening up 500 job opportunities, contributing significantly not only in the power sector but also in the local economy.
ACEN, Francia said, is focused on further expanding its footprint in the Philippines and Australia, ruling out the possibility of geographical expansion next year.
Australia is the company’s second-largest market outside the Philippines.
To date, ACEN has over one gigawatt worth of large-scale renewable energy generation in construction and operations, with more than 13 GW of projects in the development pipeline.
Its portfolio includes solar, wind, battery and pumped hydro projects across Australia.
Globally, ACEN has a generation portfolio of around 6.8 GW, consisting of fully operational assets, projects under construction and committed projects.
As the listed energy platform of the Ayala Group, the company wants to scale up its attributable renewables capacity to 20 GW over the next six years.