Vietnam: Investors becoming more interested in solar power

Vietnam: Investors becoming more interested in solar power

Generating electricity on house roofs and developing household-created
electricity is a good solution for clean energy, especially when large solar
power projects are having difficulties due to high investment rates and lack
of land.

Under Prime Minister's Decision No 11, Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) has the
responsibility of buying electricity from solar power projects at VND2,086
per kwh, or 9.35 cent.

Experts, in a fact-finding trip to Binh Thuan province 2016, found that many
households were still of two minds about installing solar power generation
systems on their roofs.

The problem was that if the systems generate more electricity than they
need, they cannot sell the excess electricity. Some households installed
low-capacity systems to avoid waste.

However, with the new policy, the systems' owners will be able to sell
electricity to the national grid at prices set by state management agencies.

"If the State applies a reasonable and flexible policy on buying and selling
electricity, people will develop large-scale electricity generation
systems," said Vu Hai from Binh Thuan province who has a VND140 million
solar power system.

Surveys all found great potential of developing solar power on roofs in
Vietnam.

In HCMC alone, there are at least 300,000 house roofs on which solar panels
can be set up to generate electricity.

If two solar panels are set up on every roof, the city will have the total
solar power capacity of 78 MW, or 105 million kwh, equal to the output of
the Can Don Hydropower Plant in Binh Phuoc province.

One household just needs to install the system to generate 4-5 kwh a day
which can provide power for four fluorescent bulbs, four fans and one TV.

However, Hoang Tien Dung, head of the Energy Institute under the Ministry of
Industry and Trade, warned that while it is technologically easy to generate
electricity on roofs, it is still difficult to set up the pricing policy.
Estimates show that solar electricity on the roofs need to be sold at 12-13
cent per kwh to make profit.

Solar energy getting cheaper

Dang Dinh Thong from the Vietnam Clean Energy Association said that the
lower investment rate, plus the higher electricity price fixed by the
government, will help encourage the development of solar power in Vietnam.

"Ten years ago, the investment rate was $6,000-7,000 per KWp, but the rate
is only $1,000 now," he said.

As for the new electricity price set by the government, Diep Bao Canh, CEO
of Red Sun, said 9.35 cents per kwh can ensure moderate profit, but
investors' expected price is over 10 cents.

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Link to Original Article:
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/science-it/179517/investors-becoming-more-i
nterested-in-solar-power.html

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John Diecker
APT Consulting Group Co., Ltd.

www.aptthailand.com