The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has signed a loan deal for its first wind energy-plus-battery storage project in Thailand, which is also the country’s first private sector initiative to combine the two technologies at scale.
The ADB told Energy-Storage.news this morning that it will lend THB235.55 million (US$7.2 million) for the construction of the Southern Thailand Wind Power and Battery Energy Storage Project, has added an “integrated” 1.88MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) to an existing 10MW wind turbine power plant. The addition of the BESS is being considered a pilot scheme that could go on to be replicated and scaled-up elsewhere in Southeast Asia. An ADB representative said the project “represents a number of firsts for ADB, particularly related to battery storage”.
While the majority of the turbines’ output will go straight into the local electrical grid, the BESS will store energy at times when the output exceeds the grid’s capacity to take it, increasing the amount of renewables that can go into the grid as well as helping to “ensure the stability and reliability of the renewable energy source,” the ADB said in its press release. The ADB representative confirmed today that the financing followed the project’s completion.
The multilaterally-owned bank has signed the loan deal with Lom Ligor Company Limited, a subsidiary of Thailand-headquartered renewable energy development company BCPG Public Company Limited (BCPG). BCPG purchased Lom Ligor Company in 2018, with Low Ligor the operator of the 10MW project at the time, in Pak Panang, Nakhon Si Thammarat Province. It was BCPG’s first foray into wind energy in Thailand.
The ADB loan includes US$4.75 million in concessional loan financing from the Clean Technology Fund of the international Climate Investment Funds, which has provided financing for development efforts relating to climate. Private Thai banking group Kasikornbank (KBank) will also provide a loan equivalent to US$7.2 million.
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