Bac Lieu Wind Farm

Enormous white wheels turn in the wind along the coast of Bạc Liêu.

People often call this place the Bạc Liêu wind fan field. In the project's own documents, though, its official name is the Bạc Liêu Province Wind Power Plant. The tourist name sounds more inviting, but the technical name says something more important. This is a real energy installation, not a scenic set built for photographs.

The investor was the Công Lý Construction, Trade and Tourism Company Limited. The provincial Department of Industry and Trade lists 62 turbines with a combined capacity of 99.2 megawatts. The total investment came to more than 5,258 billion dong. When all 62 turbines are running, the plant produces about 320 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year.

The Thanh Niên newspaper records that work began on September 9, 2010. The plant was inaugurated and joined to the national grid on January 17, 2016, in Vĩnh Trạch Đông commune, in what was then the city of Bạc Liêu. After the administrative merger, the area belongs to Cà Mau Province. More than five years passed between the first day of work and the last. Those years turned a coastal mudflat into a source of power for many thousands of families.

Up close, a turbine looks far bigger than anyone imagines. Each blade is dozens of meters long. Wind passing the blades makes a steady, rustling sound. Below lie the mudflat and the sea. Wind comes in from the sea, and as it passes, the blades turn its energy into electricity. The current then travels through the transmission system and joins the national grid. The principle is simple. Doing it at this scale, on a coast of the Mekong Delta, is not simple at all.

This was one of the earliest wind power projects in Vietnam, and it is also one of the best loved stops on a trip to Bạc Liêu. Row after row of gleaming white turbine towers rise high over a blue sea, under a wide and open sky. It is a sight that makes almost everyone stop for a moment.

What makes the place more interesting is the wider story of this coast. The old Bạc Liêu coast was never only a place for growing rice, raising shrimp or going to sea. It is also becoming a place for clean energy. That is the story of a land finding another direction, between the pressure of climate change and the ambition to rise.

In Vietnam, it is a rare place to see a large renewable energy project of this scale in operation. The wind field of Bạc Liêu is a beautiful view and a working power plant, its white wheels turning in the wind along the coast.