Vietnam urged to tap wind power potential hinh anh 1Illustrative image (Source: diendankinhte.vn)
 
Quang Ngai (VNA) – Vietnam has great potential for developing wind power but big initial investment, technical complexity and a lack of quality technicians are deterring the development of the sector.

At a workshop on wind power held in Hanoi on November 29, Ingmar Stelter, Director of the Energy Support Programme between the Ministry of Information and Communications and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), said Vietnam has a long coastline with an estimated wind power capacity of 24GW.

However, the total capacity of Vietnam’s existing wind power farms has just reached 159.2MW.

According to Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Hoang Quoc Vuong, the main causes hindering the development of wind power are the high production cost while purchase prices are low, which discourages investors.

The domestic supply sources for parts, equipment and services are lacking, as are qualified technicians.

Vuong said the Vietnamese government is continuing with efforts to perfect the legal framework and improve the organisational structure and management method in the wind power sector.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade is revising wind power selling prices for facilities on land and at sea in the direction of increasing the prices according to Decision 37/2011/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister.

Naveen Raghavan Balachandran from Vesta, a Danish group specialising in manufacturing wind turbines and supplying related services, said the group will assist Vietnam in training workers and technicians.

He also suggested Vietnam revise its policy to attract private investors in the sector.

According to the adjusted national power master plan for 2011-2020 with a vision to 2030, total wind power capacity is projected to reach 800 MW by 2020 (0.8 percent of the country’s power output), 2,000 MW (one percent) by 2025 and 6,000 MW (2.1 percent) by 2030.-VNA
VNA