Dak Lak Wind Power Project

200 MW onshore wind · Dak Lak Province, Vietnam · AIIB-financed

2021 – 2024

Topics: onshore wind · lender E&S requirements · biodiversity · resettlement · Indigenous Peoples

My contributions: environmental fieldwork, baseline study, impact assessment, noise · shadow flicker · visual modelling

Skills used: WindPro, R, QGIS, AIIB Environmental and Social Framework

Official project page: AIIB – Viet Nam: Dak Lak Wind Power Project (No. 000509)

Project at a glance

Capacity	200 MW, four 50 MW wind farms
Phase 1	Krong Buk 1, Krong Buk 2, Cu Ne 1
Phase 2	Cu Ne 2
Location	Dak Lak Province, Central Highlands, Vietnam
Sponsor	China Huadian Engineering Company Limited
Lender	Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)
Financing	USD 100 million, non-sovereign long-term debt
Offtake	Long-term power purchase agreements with EVN
E&S category	Category A (highest risk level)

Overview

The project develops four 50 MW wind farms in Dak Lak Province, built in two phases, and sells power to Vietnam Electricity (EVN) under long-term power purchase agreements. AIIB proposed USD 100 million in long-term financing for construction.

Key environmental & social issues

As a Category A project, it carries significant potential impacts:

• Biodiversity: collision risk for birds and bats, with eight Key Biodiversity Areas and six Protected Areas within 50 km
• Community health & safety: noise, shadow flicker and blade throw
• Land & livelihoods: physical and economic displacement, including Ethnic Minority households in Krong Buk District

Closing the gap to lender standards

The original ESIA was prepared under Vietnamese law and did not fully meet AIIB requirements. To close the gap, a Corrective Environmental and Social Action Plan (CESAP) set out ten areas of work, including:

• an updated Stakeholder Engagement Plan
• a Land Acquisition Audit
• a Resettlement, Livelihood Restoration and Community Development Plan
• a Biodiversity Management Plan and a Birds Adaptive Management Plan
• project-level grievance mechanisms for communities and workers, with third-party review

My role

• Authored Chapter 1 – Introduction of the ESIA covering the project background, applicable standards (AIIB ESF, IFC PS), land acquisition and the scope of the assessment
• Supervised environmental fieldwork covering water, soil, air and noise
• Authored the Environmental Baseline chapter, describing the site’s climatic, hydrological and topographical conditions
• Authored ESIA/ESMP impact chapters on surface water, groundwater, air, noise and soil
• Modelled and assessed noise, shadow flicker and visual impacts of the wind turbines using WindPro, R and QGIS

Project documents (AIIB)

Official documents disclosed by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank:

Project summary

• Project Summary Information (May 2023)

Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA)

• ESIA – Executive Summary
• ESIA – Volume I
• ESIA – Volume II
• ESIA – Volume III
• ESIA – Summary (Vietnamese)

Social management plans

• Stakeholder Engagement Plan
• Indigenous People Plan
• Resettlement and Livelihood Restoration Framework

Corrective Environmental and Social Action Plans (CESAP)

• CESAP – Phase 1 (Krong Buk 1, Krong Buk 2, Cu Ne 1)
• CESAP – Phase 2 (Cu Ne 2)

More documents, including Vietnamese versions, are on the AIIB project page.

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