Yarn maker to buy rooftop electricity from VinaCapital solar unit

The Huong Sen Comfor Company and SkyX Solar of investment fund VinaCapital signed Tuesday a power purchase agreement (PPA) for electricity generated from the former's rooftop solar system installed by the latter.

Under the PPA, the VinaCapital unit, backed by French power giant EDR Renewables, will install the 2.2 megawatt-peak rooftop system on 20,000 square meters at Huong Sen Comfor’s factory in the industrial cluster of Dong Hai in Thai Binh province, northern Vietnam. The total cost is estimated at VND40 billion, or $1.6 million.

SkyX Solar is set to start selling this energy to the domestic weaving firm in the first quarter of 2023. Both sides did not disclose the electricity price fixed in the PPA.

Huong Sen Comfor opened its factory in May 2019 with an annual capacity of 6,000 tons of fiber and is in the process of more than doubling it to 14,000 tons.

EDR Renewables, one of the world’s largest renewable energy developers, said in October 2021 that it had made a significant investment in SkyX Solar.

The French major did not reveal the number, but said the new EDR-VinaCapital partnership had investment plans of more than $100 million implemented in three years in the country to back SkyX Solar in developing an additional 200 MWp of rooftop solar and energy distribution projects for commercial and industrial customers.

EDR Renewables and VinaCapital are seeking Vietnamese authorities' nod to make initial surveys on a 3-gigawatt wind power project offshore of Vung Tau, southern Vietnam. The initially estimated investment could be up to about $13 billion.

VinaCapital had over $3.7 billion in assets under management as of the end of 2021.