Installing a rooftop solar power system in Dong Nai province’s Bien Hoa city. – Photo baochinhphu.vn) Dong Nai (VNS/VNA) - More and more households and commercialestablishments in the southern province of Dong Nai are installing rooftopsolar panels to generate electricity for their own use and to sell the surplusto the local utility.
Pham Quoc Tuan in Bien Hoa city’s Tan Tien ward installed a 50KWp solar powersystem in his house in May and no longer needs to buy electricity from the DongNai Power Company (DNPC).
In fact, he has a surplus he sells to the DNCP.
He was paying 20 million VND (860 USD) a month for power since he also has acoffee shop in his house.
His rooftop solar power system produces about 6,000kWh of electricity a monthwhereas he uses 4,000-5,000kWh, he said.
He sells the surplus at a price of 2,100 VND per kilowatt-hour, he added.
The Thanh Duc Livestock and Production Services Commercial Company Limited in XuanLoc district invested 600 million VND (25,900 USD) in a rooftop panel a yearago.
The system operates efficiently and meets around 40 percent of the company’srequirement.
Truong Dinh Quoc, deputy director of the DNPC, said the number of consumersinstalling a rooftop system and signing a contract to sell surplus electricityto the company has increased from 26 in the middle of last year to 770 now.
Most of them are households, he said.
At the current rate the number is expected to increase rapidly, easing thepower shortage, he said.
Solar power is friendly to the environment while the cost of operating andmaintaining the system is low, according to the DNCP.
To promote solar, the DNCP has taken several measures such as propagating itsbenefits to the public.
Dong Nai has favourable conditions for producing solar power like an average of2,445 hours of sunshine a year and a high radiation rate of 1,849kWh per squaremetre a year, according to its Department of Industry and Trade.
The province has many factories and companies that have the infrastructure androofs suitable for installing solar panels, it added.
Solar power systems could be used for 20-30 years and recover their cost withinfour to five years, according to suppliers./.
VNA
