By Nguyen Tuyen | dtinews.vn
A wind farm in Bac Lieu Province
According to VEA's report at a recent international conference on new technologies in renewable energy, Vietnam has huge potential in energy from biomass and waste. Vietnam can produce up to 1 billion kWh in 2020 and 6 billion kWh in 2050 from waste. The total amount of energy Vietnam can produce from biomass and waste can reach up to 9 billion kWh in 2020 and 80 billion kWh in 2050.
The solar and wind farm projects are also being expanded. However, such projects need huge investment while electricity prices are low.
A KWh of wind power is sold only for seven to eight US cents. Bui Van Thinh, chairman of Binh Thuan Wind Energy Association said this was the lowest price in the region. They can hardly compete with hydropower or thermal power plants.
Wind power in Vietnam also has plenty of rooms to grow especially in the Mekong Delta and South Central Coast. Vietnam has about 1,300 household-sized wind farms, most of them placed in the southern region. The potential for wind energy and the wind farm models for households are opportunities and challenges for Vietnam.
VEA also said that many provinces, from Danang City southwards, have long days with 2,000 to 2,500 sunny hours a year and this is an ideal environment to develop both huge and household-sized solar plants. VEA estimated that Vietnam will produce 101 billion kWh of renewable energy in 2020 and 452 billion kWh in 2050, accounting for 43% of the total energy in Vietnam.
VEA Chairman Tran Viet Ngai said, "There are still many obstacles such as high investment and low prices. In order to replace hydropower and thermal power with renewable energy, the government should offer more support policies and land and tax incentives to reduce the costs of importing spare parts and equipment."