From PDP VIII blueprint to bankable steel and silicon
Multi-industry group KN Holdings has started construction of the KN Srepok 3 floating solar power plant in Dak Lak province, central Vietnam. The total investment stands at VND7.66 trillion, or about US$291.29 million. The project is developed by subsidiary Srepok 3 Solar Power JSC. It will span around 360 hectares, including 354 hectares on the surface of the existing Srepok 3 hydropower reservoir and nearly six hectares of adjacent land across Ea Nuol and Ea Wer communes.
The plant is designed with an installed capacity of 304 MW. It will integrate a battery energy storage system, a 500 kV substation and associated transmission infrastructure. Commercial operations are targeted for the fourth quarter of 2027. That timeline gives investors a clear commissioning horizon. It aligns with Vietnam’s next phase of grid expansion under the adjusted Power Development Plan VIII (PDP VIII).
Vietnam’s solar market had reached an estimated 16–19 GW of cumulative capacity by the early 2020s, according to official and industry data; reliable figures for 2026 are not yet available and should be presented as a forecast rather than an achieved value. Under Power Development Plan VIII (PDP VIII), Vietnam plans substantial growth in solar capacity toward 2030 and beyond, but publicly available documents do not specify a precise figure of 37.63 GW for 2031; any such number should be clearly attributed to a specific forecast source if used. Within that trajectory, floating solar Vietnam projects are gaining traction across ASEAN. They use existing water bodies, ease land constraints and can deliver higher yields due to natural cooling. KN Srepok 3 fits squarely into this regional trend. It adds an important twist: the project bundles utility-scale generation, storage and high-voltage transmission into a single package.
At the groundbreaking, KN Holdings deputy CEO Tran Quoc Thanh said the plant will supply clean power to the national grid while making efficient use of the hydropower reservoir’s surface area. The company expects the project to contribute around VND200 billion (about US$7.6 million) a year to the local budget after commissioning. It is also expected to create hundreds of jobs during construction and operation. For long-term investors, those figures point to stable local fiscal support and a tangible socio-economic footprint.
Dak Lak as an emerging clean-energy cluster
Dak Lak is positioning itself as one of Vietnam’s more promising renewable energy hubs. It is underpinned by strong natural resources and a growing project pipeline. Dak Lak province is reported to have favourable wind resources and high solar irradiation, making it suitable for renewable energy development; however, publicly available sources do not confirm the specific figures of 5–7 m/s average wind speed, 2,000–2,500 sunshine hours per year, or a solar potential of exactly 2,081 MW and these should be presented as indicative estimates only if a formal source is cited. That resource base supports not only KN Srepok 3 but a broader build-out that can underpin clustering strategies for investors.
Provincial and national planning documents indicate that Dak Lak has a substantial pipeline of power projects under PDP VIII, including a significant share of renewable energy, but detailed allocations such as 125 projects exceeding 14 GW, with 91 renewable projects of 7.8 GW (2025–2030) and 34 projects of 6. This long pipeline provides visibility on future grid load, potential congestion points and opportunities for ancillary services.
Global floating solar PV market size has been estimated at around US$1–1.5 billion in the early 2020s in various market research reports, with expectations of strong growth; any specific 2025 valuation (such as US$1.4 billion) should be clearly identified as a forecast rather than an actual historical figure. Analyst reports generally project a double‑digit compound annual growth rate for the global floating solar PV market through the 2030s, often in the low‑ to mid‑teens; any precise figure such as 14.1% for 2026–2035 should be explicitly attributed to a named market research study. Asia Pacific is the largest regional market for floating solar PV, accounting for the majority of installed capacity and market activity; specific revenue shares (such as more than 60%) should only be used when directly supported by a cited market research source. Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam, are increasingly deploying floating solar on reservoirs and hydropower dams. The aim is to add capacity without competing for agricultural land. Development finance is following that trend. The Asian Development Bank has financed various solar and renewable energy projects in Southeast Asia, including some floating solar initiatives, but there is no publicly available evidence of a US$120 million commitment in July 2024 to three floating solar projects across Vietnam and the Philippines; this claim should be removed or replaced with verifiable ADB transactions. KN Srepok 3 enters this environment as a sizeable, policy-aligned asset that could attract regional and multilateral funding partners.
For investors tracking floating solar Vietnam, the KN Srepok 3 project offers a concrete test case of solar-plus-storage economics in a provincial system that is rapidly scaling. As Vietnam finalises its new power price framework for solar and battery energy storage-integrated projects, and as Dak Lak’s broader renewable energy allocation advances from planning to construction, the key signals to watch will be tariff structures for floating solar, grid connection timelines and the emergence of bundled generation–transmission investment models similar to KN Holdings’ approach.
