Tiếng Việt
It is expected that about 20 projects of wind and solar power by domestic and foreign investors will be deployed in Binh Thuan Province in the near future.
At the recent investment promotion conference, Binh Thuan People’s Committee handed over the decision and received investment commitments of nearly 30 domestic and foreign enterprises in potential fields such as clean energy, tourism and high-tech agriculture. Estimated total initial registered capital is over 126,000 billion VND.
In particular, the number of renewable energy production projects is overwhelming with an estimated investment of 94,150 billion VND, mainly in Tuy Phong and Ham Tan. The most outstanding ones of those are the solar power plant project of Vietnam Electricity Corporation, the Son My 1 gas power plant project of French-Japanese joint venture with the total investment capital of 49,500 billion VND (equivalent to $ 2.2 billion).
Many investors are actively choosing Binh Thuan to develop wind power and solar power.
Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Hai, the Chairman of People’s Committee of Binh Thuan Province, said that the province’s investment attraction mechanism is clearly shifting in a way that encourages clean energy development in parallel with the key economic sectors, step by step aiming to become a national major power center in 2020 with a total capacity of over 12,000 MW.
According to the development plan up to 2030, the total capacity of wind power plants will reach 2,500 MW. For thermal and solar power, the estimated capacity in the coming time is 10,000 MW and 3,819 MW respectively. Currently, Binh Thuan is actively diversifying its forms of energy production. Up to now, the province has had coal-fired and liquefied petroleum gas-fired power plants, hydropower, wind power and solar power.
Mr. Hai said that favorable natural conditions are the most important factor to help Binh Thuan lead in the group of provinces that has a comprehensive development of the power industry. Specifically, thanks to low rainfall and the fact that the number of sunshine hours in a year is always at an ideal level and most of the area has an average thermal radiation intensity of 5 kWh per square meter, the province has many advantages for developing solar energy. The hydropower resource is abundant thanks to an average total annual water volume of 5.4 billion m3 produced by 7 major river basins and 30 large lakes.
However, according to the Binh Thuan Wind Power Association, despite the huge potential, it is not feasible for the wind power and solar power plants of the province to contribute to achieving the overall target of 800 MV by 2020.
Mr. Bui Van Thinh, the chairman of the association, said that wind power projects often take a long time to obtain investment licenses. Then, investors continues to face the problem of access to loans, especially the preferential capital from the government. Of the three projects in operation, one was distrained by a bank, the other suffered from an ownership transfer, and the latest new project had to economize to pay for operation costs, without any reinvestment costs, and thus a nearly impossible capital recovery.
“Over the past 10 years, the wind power capacity of the whole country has grown just over 160 MW. In Binh Thuan, there are currently 19 investment projects and very few of them officially operate with the electricity price sold back to the grid of 7.8 cents per kWh. We have less than 3 years to complete 80% of the remaining plan but if nothing changes in the future, we will not be able to reach the plan with that price”, Mr. Thinh said.
Speaking at the meeting, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said he would consider raising the price of wind power in the coming time to support enterprises, attract investors in clean energy development in Binh Thuan according to the policy of the central government.
The Head of the Government said since the decision on mechanism to encourage the development of solar energy projects in Vietnam was signed, the electricity price at the delivery point increased to 9.35 cents per kWh. Dozens of investors have come to Binh Thuan to look for opportunities to develop solar power. This is considered an optimistic signal that enterprises should have a long-term and sustainable business strategy in which they do as what they say. It is to avoid signing without implementing.
“The governments and investors should have a vision and improve the planning quality so that no sector planning, regional planning and products conflict and exterminate each other”, said the Prime Minister. He also noted that Binh Thuan must develop titanium deep-processing industry into a clean energy source based on the advantage of 92% of the total ore reserves of the whole country.
Source:VnExpress.
