Energy conservation is considered a necessary and indispensable requirement for sustainable development. This is also a prerequisite to secure energy security for the future, environmental protection and response to climate change.
Energy conservation is a major issue of the entire society. This brings in a lot of benefits like reducing production costs; lowering product prices and increasing economic efficiency; protecting the ecological environment. Increased efficient energy use is also a joint sustainable development solution for enterprises in particular and the entire society in general.
According to surveys, industrial parks and export processing zones are among the biggest users of energy with the highest level of energy waste. This waste is primarily found in lighting systems and pumping stations. The waste of electricity at pumping stations is about 30 percent while the rate in lighting systems is almost 50 percent.
Actually, irrational manufacturing equipment, machinery and outdated control system causes serious energy loss. Notably, inappropriately arranged heating and freezing systems, poor thermal isolation and insulators, leaked air supply systems give rise to enormous energy loss. The capacity of illuminating systems and pumping stations is usually much above the real use.
According to the conclusions of the "Energy Efficiency Working Group" at a recent meeting of the Vietnam Business Council for Sustainable Development (VBCSD), energy consumption in the process of production is an important criterion to determine the price and quality of a product. Energy cost of production is the basis for determining cost. Energy conservation is to minimise consumption in the throes of manufacturing and processing products. According to this working group, there are many ways of conserving energy and lowering production cost namely using modern equipment; applying scientific and technical achievements to production; improving energy supply system to reduce wear-out; only using equipment with appropriate capacity; avoiding unnecessary waste; and importantly changing people's habits of using energy towards increased efficient use.
In addition to energy conservation, companies also need to focus on finding out alternative production materials which come from renewable energy or energy -efficient sources. In reality, although Vietnam is endowed with enormous natural resources, they have not been properly exploited for use. The potential wind-power capacity in Vietnam is estimated at 513.360 MW. Vietnam is one of 14 countries with largest hydroelectric potentials with nine major river systems and thousands of rivulets.
Solar energy source is measured to have solar radiation of 3 - 4.5 kWh per square metre per day in winter and about 4.5 - 6.5 kWh per square metre per day in summer. These invaluable potential sources have not been utilised to bring in the highest efficiency for production and livelihood. Vietnam has to import electricity and other energy sources for production every year. If these alternative energy sources are developed, they will generate high economic efficiency and support sustainable development.
For develop national energy sources sustainably, energy conservation in production is a basic requirement. Vietnam needs to take advantage of renewable energy sources and attach importance to energy conservation programmes to support social and economic development and energy security for the future.
Do Ngoc
Vietnamese
