Vietnam's Kinh Bac starts 180-MW wind farm in Gia Lai

Construction of the 180-MW Van Canh 2 wind farm began on November 7 in Gia Lai province in central Vietnam, according to a Vietnam News Agency (VNA) report. The VND7.7 trillion ($301mn) project is the first power-generation project that industrial park developer Kinh Bac City Development Holding Corporation (HOSE) has taken to the construction stage.

According to VNA, the groundbreaking in Van Canh commune was attended by Standing Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Tuc. Once finished in 2028, the plant should generate around 623mn kilowatt-hours (kWh) annually, or about 0.62 terawatt-hours on average. Such output points to a capacity factor near 40%, a high figure for wind farms built on land. The provincial government has given the project in-principle approval, and it appears in Vietnam's adjusted Power Development Plan VIII (PDP8).

VietnamPlus carried another VNA report that set out a quicker timeline: the investor intends to have Van Canh 2 running before the close of 2027, ahead of the 2028 date projected earlier.

Kinh Bac holds the project via a subsidiary. The Investor reported that in January, the province's authorities chose Saigon-Bac Giang Industrial Park Corp. as investor of both Van Canh 1 and Van Canh 2; the firm is a unit of KinhBac City Development Holding Corporation (KBC). When bids closed on December 4, 2025, this unit had been the sole bidder for the two projects, Cafef reported. At the ceremony, Dang Thanh Tam, chairman of Kinh Bac, said Van Canh 1, which he called comparable in size, would be the company's next build. According to Cafef, earlier filings showed Van Canh 1 at 160MW, with an estimated 502mn kWh of yearly output and total investment of nearly VND6.905 trillion. That would give the pair a combined 340MW, although VietnamPlus put the total at nearly 360MW.

Gia Lai People's Committee chairman Pham Anh Tuan told the ceremony that the province had gained more room for development after the administrative reorganisation and had substantial wind and solar resources. He said PDP8 provides for about 9,657MW of renewable capacity in the province by 2035. Gia Lai has identified more than 100 potential projects totalling over 32,000MW, and 85 projects with combined capacity of 4,271MW are already in commercial operation. Provincial authorities asked the developer to provide enough capital, staff and equipment, to hire competent contractors, and to coordinate grid connection and transmission work.

The project is consistent with national planning. The US International Trade Administration says the revised PDP8, which was approved in April 2025 under Decision 768/QD-TTg, lifted the 2030 target for onshore and nearshore wind to 26,066-38,029 MW, compared with 21,880 MW in the original plan.

For Kinh Bac, a company focused mainly on property, the wind farm also represents a shift. Management told its 2026 annual general meeting that one reason for entering renewable energy was to satisfy green production requirements imposed by industrial park tenants such as Apple. In its account of the meeting, Vietnam.vn reported that the company's leaders conceded margins from the energy and AI Data Center businesses might not be especially high. As of the end of September, total assets stood at VND76.67 trillion, according to The Investor.