Vietnam activates renewable development spree, solar and wind to outshine others as cost declines, says GlobalData
The Vietnamese renewables industry has been gaining traction lately as the country considers renewable energy to play a pivotal role in achieving the optimistic Power Development Plant (PDP).
The PDP is envisaged to improve electricity infrastructure and expand renewables in the power mix to accelerate decarbonization. Against this backdrop, solar PV and wind are expected to steer the Vietnamese power sector decarbonization and bring down the cost of solar PV systems by about 25% and wind projects by 17% by 2030, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
Ankit Mathur, Practice Head of Power at GlobalData, comments: “Vietnam’s installed power capacity is likely to reach approximately 135GW, growing by more than two folds from 55GW by the end of 2019. The renewable sources (including hydropower) are likely to fuel about half of the new overall capacity built of estimated 80GW by 2030. Solar PV and wind are likely to be the renewable flag bearers with more than 80% of the anticipated renewable capacity to be dominated by these two technologies. Solar PV has witnessed a staggering growth of about 1,000 times from a meagre 7.4 MW to an estimated 7,000 GW+ by the end of 2020.”
The country has revealed a clear roadmap that has attracted the investors’ interest and boosted the confidence enabling the future assurance of an attractive and sizeable renewable market among the Southeast Asian counterparts. Although COVID-19 is continuing to unfold in unpredictable ways, it has a limited impact on the investors’ sentiments. Vietnam’s renewable sector witnessed an improvement in the deal volume with 19 asset transactions deals recorded by end November 2020 against the 16 deals during 2019. e
Mathur concludes: “Amid the pandemic, the country has to review the PDP blue-print providing more support and transparency to the power sector players and investors with cost benefits and flexible approach for developing projects. To achieve the power sector decarbonization and energy sustainability, Vietnam should also compliment the renewable expansion by providing multiple provisions and mechanisms for a greater transparency for the investors. Some of these mechanisms include encouraging technological developments, simplifying regulatory approvals and expansion of transmission, and grid infrastructure for a successful implementation of the renewables in the power grid.”
