ACEN is looking to enter the renewable energy (RE) market in the United States by acquiring existing wind power projects on the other side of the world.
This comes as Ayala’s power arm on Tuesday announced a new partnership with UPC Solar & Wind Investments LLC and Pivot Power Management (PPM).
Aside from purchasing wind assets, the partnership would explore strategies to extend the projects’ useful life through preventive maintenance and repowering.
“Our aspiration is for the US to become a priority market for ACEN outside of the Philippines over time. This partnership will provide an exciting entry to the fast-growing US market, and we look forward to leveraging the combined expertise of ACEN and our new partners to make this a strong growth platform in the coming years,” ACEN International President and COO Patrice Clausse said in a statement.
“We are excited to work with the ACEN team toward our shared goal of accelerating the transition to renewable energy. This transaction will help us grow our development and operating platform in the US,” PPM CEO Tim Rosenzweig said.
ACEN hopes to add RE capacity in the US to help build its portfolio towards its 5,000 megawatt (MW) all-RE goal by 2025. To date, it has deployed more than $200 million in each of its priority markets of Australia, Vietnam and Indonesia.
UPC and ACEN currently have joint ventures for a 60MW wind farm in Vietnam and a 420-megawatt peak solar farm in India.
The two firms were also partners in the 81MW Caparispisan and 160MW Balaoi and Caunayan wind farm projects in Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte until Ayala bought out UPC in October last year. Shortly before that, ACEN took over its joint ventures with UPC in Australia.
ACEN currently has 3,800MW of attributable capacity in its portfolio after adding 800 MW during the first quarter, surpassing its 3,000MW goal for 2022. The company has also increased its project pipeline to 18,000MW.