Solar panels installed on houses in HCM City (Source: ves-vn.com)HCM City (VNA) – Experts and scientists have discussedhow to promote the application of technological solutions to produce cleanenergy, and form communities using smart energy, towards making over Ho ChiMinh City as a smart city in a seminar on April 20.
The event was jointly held by the Centre for Hands-on Actions and Networkingfor Growth and Environment (CHANGE) and the Centre for Regional and UrbanStudies under the Union of Science and Technology Associations (USTA) .
Nguyen Phuong Duy from the municipal Department of Industryand Trade said the city has implemented important items in the project “DevelopingHCM City into a smart city in 2017-2020, with a vision to 2025”, focusing on promotingthe use of smart and clean energy, saving and effective energy use.
Participants heard that local residents have consciously used solar energy in dailyactivities. Over 12,000 solar energy water heaters have been used in HCM Cityso far. A great number of customers installed solar electrify systems connectedto the national grid. Many waste-to-energy plants were also formed in the city, helping creating safe energy sources.
“Smart city development should includethe ability to deal with environmental challenges and clean energy technologysolutions will play a very important role,” said Tran Ngoc Giao, chairman of USTA.
He added that many policies and activities have been taken to promote thedevelopment of household-scale solar energy model, noting that the city aims toraise the total capacity of solar electricity to 200 MW in 2025.
Hoang Thi Minh Hong, Director of CHANGE, suggested the Government focus onincreasing the generation of renewable energy because in 2016 Vietnam and 47other nations signed a pledge to have renewables accounting for 100 percent ofenergy generation by 2050.
“I expect that HCM City, with its geographic, climatic, economic, technologicaland human resource potential, will lead the nation in renewable energy”, sheadded.
Statistics show that HCM City saved 3.1 billion million kWh and reduced 2.039billion tonnes of CO2 in 2011-2017.
The city plans to have 0.8 percent of electricity from wind by 2020, 1 percentby 2025 and 2.1 percent by 2030.
For solar, the targets are 0.5 percent, 1.6 percent and 3.3 percent. They are 1percent, 1.2 percent and 2.1 percent for biomass.-VNA
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