ACEN lines up more green projects abroad

MANILA, Philippines — Building on its robust performance last year, Ayala-led ACEN Corp. is forging ahead with the rollout of more green energy projects across global markets.

By 2026, the company wants to complete the Solarscape and Dayasinar solar farms, totaling 80 megawatts, in Malaysia and the 68-MW Sonagazi Solar in Bangladesh.

With a total investment of around $13 million, the Malaysia projects are expected to generate about 320 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of clean power annually upon completion.

ACEN has earmarked up to $18 million for Sonagazi Solar, which is poised to power households through a 96-GWh output per year.

In Australia, the listed energy platform of the Ayala Group is advancing the development of the 400-MW-hour New England BESS, a battery storage project slated for completion as early as July next year.

Located in New South Wales, the facility is estimated to cost $160 million.

Further, ACEN also intends to finish the construction of the 40-MW Salak and Darajat Geothermal Unit 7 in Indonesia by the first quarter of 2027.

The geothermal plant will generate around 320 GWh of power per year, although financial details of the project have yet to be disclosed.

All these international projects had a completion rate of less than 10 percent at the end of 2024, ACEN said last week.

Earlier, ACEN president and CEO Eric Francia said the company plans to activate four international assets this year.

These projects include the 600-MW Monsoon Wind in Laos, the 153-MW Maharashtra Hybrid Solar-Wind in India, the 520-MW Stubbo Solar in Australia and the 129-MW Stockyard Wind in the US.

This expansion bodes well for the company’s goal of expanding its attributable renewables capacity to 20 GW by 2030.

At present, ACEN has a global portfolio of seven GW, consisting of 3.3 GW in operation, 2.3 GW under construction and 1.4 GW of committed projects.

Last year, the company saw its net income grow by 27 percent to P9.36 billion from 2023’s P7.4 billion on the back of strong renewables output.