Vietnam’s VinES set to bring BESS solutions to Australia via new partner Magellan

Vietnamese firm VinES Energy Solutions and Australia’s Magellan Power announced Monday their signing of a memorandum of understanding outlining their strategic cooperation in commercial supply and service offering of battery energy storage systems (BESS) in the Australian market.

The non-binding MoU sets forth such key cooperation areas of evaluating and supplying BESS products and services from VinES into the Australian market through establishing commercial relations with Magellan, and considering strategic investment and cooperation opportunities in manufacturing and supplying BESS in Australia.

As an established local player since 1991, Magellan is planning on constructing the first BESS factory producing battery packs and racks located in Western Australia, the firm said.

In the short run, VinES and Magellan are looking into supplying the former’s BESS solutions to integrate with the latter’s power conversion system (PCS) to offer to the Australian market.

“This cooperation will lay solid stepping stones for VinES BESS to penetrate the high-profile market of Australia, which also demonstrates our capability to offer high-quality products and services that meet the stringent requirements of reputable international developers,” VinES CEO Pham Thuy Linh said in the joint announcement.

VinES, a member of Vietnam’s largest private conglomerate Vingroup, is a clean energy solution provider and the only BESS manufacturer in the country to date.

VinES had earlier started to cooperate with Marubeni Green Power Vietnam to promote the adoption of BESS in the nation, and cooperated with Altinay Elektromobilite to provide comprehensive energy storage solutions to the Turkish energy market.

In November 2022, VinES and China-based Gotion High-Tech started construction of their $275 million battery factory in Vietnam. Covering 14 hectares in Ha Tinh’s Vung Ang Economic Zone, the new factory is set to start production in the third quarter of 2023. The factory is designed to annually produce 30 million lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cells.

This May, Thailand-headquartered Pan Asia Metals and VinES signed a non-binding MoU to conduct a feasibility study for a lithium conversion factory.

The duo said in a joint release that they would establish a team to conduct the study for a factory near the VinES battery plant also in Ha Tinh, with an initial capacity of 20,000-25,000 tons per annum. Pan Asia Metals’ main role is to secure lithium concessions and lithium oxide concentrate to supply the project.

Vietnam has already joined Asia’s plans to increase the development of BESS to ensure supplies of round-the-clock renewable energy towards carbon neutrality.