Renewable energy in Vietnam
[2] In 2020, wind and solar had a combined share of 10% of the country's electrical generation, already meeting the government's 2030 goal, suggesting future displacement of growth of coal capacity.
The commercial biomass electricity generation is currently slow and limited to valorizing bagasse only, but the stream of forest products, agricultural and municipal waste is increasing.
[10] In October 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the provincial People's Committees cancelled 474 hydropower projects and 213 potential sites, recognizing that their impact on the environment and society failed to meet the expected benefits in terms of flood control, irrigation and power generation.
[17] The decision to cancel about half of the projects in the pipeline was motivated by a series of incident with small and medium hydropower, especially in the rainy season.
The negative outcomes of hydropower development in Vietnam include: By the end of May 31, 2019, 7 wind power plants were in operation, for a national installed capacity of 331 MW.
[32] The project was completed in time to benefit from an incentive of the feed-in tariff for renewable energy offered by the government.
Many other projects were completed in that time window, in excess of the capacity of the transmission network, leading to severe curtailment problems starting in July 2019.
The Thang Long Wind power project proposes to develop large-scale offshore near the Kê Gà area, in the Binh Thuan province.
[35] Vietnam wind resources are mostly located along its coastline of more than 3,000 km, and in the hills and highlands of the northern and central regions.
[37] A World Bank ESMAP study (see the table below) estimated that over 39% of Vietnam's area had annual average wind speed over 6 m/s at a height of 65m, equivalent to a total capacity of 512 GW.
[38] It was estimated that over 8% of Vietnam's land area had annual average wind speed over 7 m/s, equivalent to a total capacity of 110 GW.
[40] In May of 2023, the Vietnamese government approved the Power Development Plan 8 (PDP8) which included having 6 gigawatts of offshore windpower online by 2030.
[41] However, as of August 2024 there were no offshore wind power stations under construction due to a number of legal hurdles and as a result, at this stage, it is unlikely that the 6 gigawatt goal will be reached.
[42] Most recently, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has suggested a pilot offshore wind program to be developed by the state, however, this is only in the planning phase.
Generous FITs and supporting policies such as tax exemptions are found to be the key proximate drivers of Vietnam's solar PV boom.
[4] Underlying drivers include the government's desire to enhance energy self-sufficiency and the public's demand for local environmental quality.
[12] By the end of June 30, 2019, 82 solar power plants, with a total capacity of about 4,464 MW, were approved and commissioned by the National Electricity Regulatory Center.
[49] These projects were entitled to an electricity purchase price (FIT) equivalent to 9.35 US¢/kWh for a period of 20 years under Decision 11/2017/QD-TTg [50] of the Prime Minister.
[3] A few large-scale solar power projects have been built in Vietnam: Tra O lagoon solar power plant project (My Loi commune, Phu My district, Binh Dinh province), with a capacity of 50MWp, was expected to be deployed on a water surface area of around 60 hectares of the lagoon's 1,300 hectares in quarter-II of 2019.
[56] However, from mid-2018, during the implementation process, there was a fierce opposition from the local people, preventing investors from building projects due to some big concerns about affecting the ecological environment.
However, when constructing the factory, the investor (Hacom Solar Energy Co., Ltd) arbitrarily let the vehicles run through people's land.
[65] According to the Decision 2068/QD-TTg [66] on Approving the Viet Nam's Renewable Energy Development Strategy up to 2030 with an outlook to 2050: Vietnam has more than 250 hot water points widely distributed across the country, including 43 hot spots (> 61 degrees), the highest point of exit with 100 degrees is located in Le Thuy (Quang Binh).
[10] In Vietnam, the tidal energy potential is not large, can only reach 4GW capacity in the coastal areas of the Mekong Delta.
However, the large potential area that has not been studied is the coastal waters of Quang Ninh - Hai Phong, especially Ha Long Bay and Bai Tu Long, where the tidal range is high (> 4m), and many islands do dikes for water tanks in coastal lakes and bays.
