Vietnam to Give Incentives to 1,000-MW Solar Energy Projects: Official

Vietnam will give incentive policies to solar energy development projects with a capacity of 1,000 MW each, said Deputy Director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Energy Department Le Tuan Phong.

 

Solar energy has not yet been popular in Vietnam due to high costs that are between five and seven times higher than the current power prices, and double prices of wind energy.

 

He elaborated that the state-owned Electricity of Vietnam Group (EVN) has not yet signed a power purchase agreement with Vietnam Renewable Energy Joint Stock Company (REVN) for the national first wind-to-power plant though five 1.5-MW turbines of the plant have produced a combined 11 million kWh of electricity to date due to the high prices.

 

Trinh Quang Dung, head of the Ho Chi Minh City Institute of Physics’ Solar Laboratory said investments for solar energy projects are not only high in Vietnam but also in the world.

 

He noted that investment in solar energy systems would bring about more benefits than spending money on electricity dynamos to ease power shortage as investors can retrieve their initial capital for five or seven years amid a 30-year life span of a solar power plant.

 

Dung urged the government to work out policies to support households to install solar power systems as applied in many countries worldwide.

 

Vietnam has a huge potential to develop solar energy. It has up to between 2,000 hours and 2,500 hours of sunshine a year with solar radiation of between 3 kWh and 3.5 kWh per square meter per day in the winter and of between 4.5 kWh and 6.5 kWh per square meter per day in the summer. (Young People)