American wind and solar farm developer UPC Renewables has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Vietnamese conglomerate T&T to jointly develop onshore and nearshore wind farms and solar power projects in Vietnam, with total investment estimated at US$2.5 billion.

The deal, signed on September 21 during Vietnamese State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s working visit to the United States, envisages a combined capacity of nearly 1,500 megawatts (MW) from projects in Ninh Thuan and Dak Nong provinces in central Vietnam, and Soc Trang, Ben Tre and Bac Lieu in the south.

UPC Renewables is a leading renewable energy developer in Asia-Pacific with offices in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. It says UPC-formed companies have developed more than 73 operating wind and solar projects with a total installed capacity of 4,500MW and an investment value of over US$8.4 billion.

UPC Renewables Vietnam was formed in 2017 with its main office in Ho Chi Minh City. It is focusing on a 500MW pipeline of wind and solar projects.

Prior to its latest partnership with UPC, Hanoi-based T&T signed another MoU with Denmark’s renewable energy giant Ørsted to team up on wind energy projects over a period of 20 years.

The alliance plans to develop almost 10 gigawatts of offshore wind projects off the coasts of Ninh Thuan province and adjoining Binh Thuan, Vietnam’s most suitable areas for offshore wind development. The projects will involve investments of up to US$30 billion.

In another development, UPC Hydrogen, an affiliate of UPC Renewables, announced on September 22 it has secured an exclusive licence from Canada-based Proton Technologies to produce hydrogen in several countries in Asia-Pacific, including Indonesia, Vietnam, Australia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Mongolia, and Myanmar.

UPC Hydrogen director Steven Zwaan says: “When we first visited Proton’s production site in Canada in early 2020, our pre-Covid view was excitement about both the potential to load balance renewable-weighted grids with baseload hydrogen, but also the longer-term prospect of an electricity cost potentially lower than wind and solar. Now the world is very attuned to the benefits of saving money while deeply decarbonizing using hydrogen without emitting carbon to surface.”

UPC Hydrogen says it believes the Proton technology can produce hydrogen in the licensed countries at a price of less than US$1 per kilogram from new, plugged, abandoned or uneconomic oil wells while keeping carbon from being emitted from the wells.