Danish provide Vietnam with green energy access

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At conferences held last week in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City on wind power development, Danish Ambassador to Vietnam John Nielsen said that Vietnam had huge potential for wind power and Denmark could provide support to help develop growth in the field.

The ambassador highlighted the fact that wind power is cheaper than coal or gas imports and that Vietnam is shifting from being a net energy exporter to a net importer.

In addition, wind energy ramps up very quickly, ready to provide substantial electricity growth required in Vietnam in the short term. This can provide a solution for Vietnam to meet the high annual surge in energy demand, estimated to exceed 15 per cent in the coming years.

Moreover wind energy is a green energy which powers the country while at the same time combating climate change. It also helps dilute the reliance on hydro power which is heavily affected by seasonal changes. Wind energy development can also bring an increased number of job opportunities for local communities and add economic activity in remote and poor regions.

“Vietnamese government is implementing a green strategy so we foresee that the wind power will develop in the future. Of course there will be long way to go but the potential is huge and wind power will be taken into the national electricity grid in the future,” Nielsen said.

The ambassador added that the questions to develop wind power in Vietnam now involved building capacity, finding financing solutions and getting the right price for the product.

There are many factors to make wind power more fruitful in Vietnam. Among the most important things to implement a green energy strategy are the government’s commitments to support green energy development and incentives to private developers and investors in the field.

Denmark has long supported the development of green growth in Vietnam, for instance via programmes on climate change and energy efficiency. Denmark’s companies are bringing state-of-the-art technologies, financing, labour and skills into Vietnam.

According to the World Bank, Vietnam has wind power potential of about 513,360MW, more than 200 times as much as the capacity of the Son La Hydropower Plant. Despite Vietnam’s potential to become a Southeast Asian giant in wind power development, it continues to lag behind regional neighbours.

Le Tuan Phong, deputy head of the General Department of Energy under the Ministry of Trade and Industry, said that Vietnam was increasingly dependent on international sources of power to meet the country’s growing power needs.