Vietnam’s biggest waste-to-power plant secures $160 mln syndicated loan

Germany’s Deutsche Bank has arranged a $160 million syndicated loan for Vietnam's largest operating waste incineration plant, located in Hanoi.

The facility is the first of its kind in the capital city and it converts 4,000 tons of dry waste into energy every day.

This is Deutsche Bank’s latest loan in Vietnam following a $15 million green loan from the German bank for Pepperl+Fuchs, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of electronic sensors and components. The German producer used the green loan to build its second plant in Vietnam, worth $18 million and located in Ho Chi Minh City next to its first plant in the Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone.

In Hanoi, Thien Y Environmental Energy JSC is the developer and operator of Vietnam’s biggest waste-to-power plant where the new $160 million loan is intended.

Thien Y inaugurated the 75-megawatt plant in Soc Son district in July 2022. The facility has five incinerators of 15 MW each, and the first was connected to the national grid at that time, while the other four are waiting for official permission to start operating some time this year.

The waste-to-power project, located in the Nam Son Waste Treatment Complex, has a total investment of VND7 trillion ($299 million).

Waste-to-energy projects are becoming more popular in Vietnam, where trash is mostly buried or turned into fertilizer.

In the southern province of Long An next to HCMC, Vietnam Waste Solutions (VWS), wholly invested by the U.S.-based California Waste Solutions Inc., is about to invest $700 million in a waste treatment project with a designed capacity of 40,000 tons.

The firm is also preparing to update waste-to-power technology at its Da Phuoc integrated waste management facility in HCMC.

Dutch waste management company Harvest Waste B.V. received permission last August to carry out initial studies for a waste-to-energy project in the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang.

The Dutch firm, via its partnership with two Vietnamese firms - Pacific Group and Alpha Investment - plans to build a modern plant to create green energy without polluting emissions.