Vietnamese online newspaper Vietnam.net said that at a recent international conference on new technologies in renewable energy, the Vietnam Energy Association (VEA) launched a new report showing the huge potential from biomass and waste. This could amount to up to 1 billion kWh in 2020 and 6 billion kWh in 2050 from waste, Vietnam.net said, with a total amount from biomass and waste of up to 9 billion kWh in 2020 and 80 kWh in 2050.
Vietnam is currently expanding its solar and wind farm projects, although while electricity prices are low this requires huge investment, making these technologies unable to compete effectively against hydropower or thermal power plants. However, wind power has huge growth potential, particularly in the Mekong Delta and South Central Coast regions. VEA also said that many provinces in the country enjoy long sunny days with 2,000 to 2,500 hours of sunlight per year, particularly in those areas south of Da Nang. This is an ideal environment in which to establish both large-scale and small-scale solar plants.
“There are still many obstacles such as high investment and low prices” said VEA Chairman Tran Viet Ngai, speaking to Vietnam.net. In order to replace hydropower and thermal power with renewable energy, the government should offer more support policies and land and tax incentives to reduce the costs of importing spare parts and equipment.”
VEA estimates that Vietnam can produce 101 billion kWh of renewable energy in 2020 and 452 billion kWh in 2050, accounting for 43 percent of the total energy in Vietnam.
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