CURRENT SITUATION OF VIETNAM’S RENEWABLE ENERGY PRODUCTION AND USAGE

The energy industry is on the right track in developing and using clean energy, renewable energy. Therefore, many mechanisms and policies for renewable energy development have been issued, which focuses on encouraging the development of power sources using renewable energy, especially wind power, solar power, biomass... As a result, power sources using renewable energy have made great progress in recent times.

By the end of 2018, Vietnam has successfully developed many renewable energy projects with 285 small hydroelectric plants, with a total capacity of about 3,322 MW; 08 wind power plants with a total capacity of 243 MW and 10 biomass power plants with a total capacity of about 212 MW. And as written in their report, regarding solar power, more than 100 projects have signed power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Electricity of Vietnam (EVN).

Wind power development

Located in the tropical monsoon region and with a coastline of more than 3,200 km, moreover, there is also a southwest monsoon blowing in the summer, the average wind speed in the East Sea of ​​Vietnam is quite strong. Therefore, thanks to the geographical location, the potential for wind energy in Vietnam is very promising.

Up to now, the number of wind power projects developed has increased rapidly, especially when the Government issued a mechanism to encourage wind power development (Decision No. 37/2011/QD-TTg dated June 29, 2011 and Decision No. 37/2011/QD-TTg dated June 29, 2011 and Decision No. Decision No. 39/2018/QD-TTg dated September 10, 2018). Currently, there are 9 wind power plants/farms in operation with a total capacity of 304.6 MW, of which the largest is the Bac Lieu wind farm with nearly 100 MW, the smallest is the Phu Phu wind power plant. In the 6th quarter, MW is connected to the independent grid (not connected to the national grid) on Phu Quy island, Binh Thuan province, the rest are 7 small-scale wind power plants with a capacity of less than 50 MW as seen in the table below.

In addition, according to the wind power development planning for the period to 2020, with a vision to 2030, the expected capacity potential is more than 22,000 MW, details of some provinces are as follows: Binh Thuan 1,570 MW, Ninh Thuan 1,429 MW, Ca Mau 5,894 MW, Tra Vinh 1,608 MW,... However, there is always a gap from potential to reality, but the gap in wind power in Vietnam is "too far" due to too many barriers, legal, technical, financial, human resource and project investor difficulties.

Solar power

Vietnam is also considered a country with great potential for solar energy, especially in the central and southern regions of the country with the total number of sunny hours per year fluctuating between 1,400-3,000 hours. Solar energy here is available all year round, is quite stable and widely distributed across different regions of the country. In particular, the average number of sunny days in the central and southern provinces is about 300 days per year.

Since the Government issued Decision No. 11/2017/QD-TTg dated April 11, 2017 on the mechanism to encourage the development of solar power projects in Vietnam and Circular No. 16/2017/TT-BCT regulations on project development and sample power purchase agreement applied to solar power projects, within more than 3 years, many domestic and foreign investors have sought investment opportunities in large-scale solar power projects nationwide. By the end of 2020, the grid-connected solar power source has been put into operation up to about 9,000 MW. In Eric Chin article (2022), Vietnam's solar power capacity increased from 86 MW in 2018 to about 16,500 MW in 2020. Therefore, Vietnam overtook Thailand to become the ASEAN country with the largest installed capacity of solar power. The solar power system will provide about 10.6 TWh of electricity in 2020, accounting for nearly 4% of total output. Besides farm-type solar power projects (installed on the ground, on water), rooftop solar power projects are also developing at a very fast rate. The provinces in the Southeast still remain the leading localities in rooftop solar power installation with both the number of projects and the total installed capacity.

At the same time, a large number of solar power plants put into operation in a short time have been causing many difficulties and challenges for the operation of the power system. The reason is due to the uncertain, weather-dependent nature of this type of power source. Not to mention, the “hot” and massive development of concentrated solar power projects in a few provinces such as Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan and Dak Lak has caused overload of 110 kV and 220 kV grids in the above areas.

Biomass energy

As an agricultural country, Vietnam has great potential for biomass energy. The main types of biomass are energy wood, waste - crop by-products from crops, livestock waste, urban waste and other organic wastes. Biomass energy sources can be used by burning directly, or forming biomass fuel pellets.

The capacity of sustainable exploitation of biomass for energy production in Vietnam is about 150 million tons per year. Some forms of biomass can be immediately exploited technically for electricity production, or applying energy cogeneration technology (producing both electricity and heat) such as: rice husks in the Mekong Delta, bagasse surplus in sugar factories, domestic waste in big cities, livestock waste from cattle farms, households and other organic waste from agro-forestry-seafood processing.

As of November 2020, there are about 560MW of total capacity of biomass power projects from wood power registered for investment and investment research (North: 166MW, North Central: 50MW, Central Central: 117MW, Central Highlands: 120MW, South Central: 50MW, South: 60MW). In addition, there are currently 2 biomass power projects from agricultural waste (sorghum) with a registered scale of 600MW in An Giang province being proposed for investment.

The construction of waste-burning power plants is also being concerned with the goal of reducing environmental pollution, especially in big cities and urban areas. Currently, in our country, there have been a number of waste incineration power projects that have been put into operation, or are under construction in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Can Tho, and Ha Nam.

Small hydropower

The river system of Vietnam is dense, distributed in many different territories. Small hydroelectric potential is distributed mainly in the mountainous areas of the North, South Central and Central Highlands. Hydroelectricity remains the renewable energy source with the highest capacity, contributing about 40% to the total national electricity capacity. To date, large-scale hydropower projects (>100MW) in the most favorable areas for development have reached their limit, opportunities now focus on small-scale hydropower projects with a capacity of less than 30 MW. The technical potential of small hydropower plants under 30 MW is about 25 billion kWh/year (nearly 7,000 MW) and by the end of 2018 there have been more than 3,300 MW of small hydropower plants put into operation as mentioned above.

In addition to the fuel and renewable energy sources mentioned above, Vietnam also has the potential for geothermal energy, marine energy such as tides. These energy sources are still being studied to identify and evaluate potential reserves. Thus, at present, in our country, there are 4 types of renewable energy that have been exploited to produce electricity. Nonetheless, the actual exploitation of renewable energy and the development of power projects from renewable energy in Vietnam is still not commensurate with the potential. In the context of combating climate change and developing a "green economy" are top priorities for many countries around the world, renewable energy is receiving more and more attention. Vietnam needs to develop faster, both creating a competitive position in the period of "green economy", and also a key point to achieve the goal of "sustainable development" of the country and improve the environment, protect people's health in the long run.

By Quynh Van

Sources:

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