In the context of the national power grid system being heavily dependent on hydropower and supply difficulties, diversifying energy sources, especially renewable energy such as wind power, gas power, solar power, etc., plays a very important role. While wind power or gas power requires large resources, making investment difficult, developing rooftop solar power for "self-production and self-consumption" is a practical and effective solution. After many consultations, this solution has been submitted by the Ministry of Industry and Trade to the Government to issue a mechanism to encourage businesses and people to install it to contribute to reducing the current shortage of electricity supply.
According to a survey by experts, Nghe An province, with an average number of sunshine hours per year of about 1,700 - 2,000 hours, is in the group of areas with the highest number of sunshine hours in the country and an average amount of solar radiation of about 4.73kWh/m2/day, so there is great potential for solar power development. If exploited well, renewable energy in Nghe An will reach over 17,400 MW; it is possible to construct solar panels on roofs, install them on the ground, on water (lakes) and wind power on coastal areas.
TH Group - a leading investment enterprise in Nghe An, determined that sustainable development must be associated with the goal of achieving zero emissions in the future, in which the key is to determine that green economy and circular economy are consistent orientations. Ms. Hoang Thi Thanh Thuy - Head of the Coordination Board of the Sustainable Development Committee, TH Group shared: All activities of TH comply with the principle of using environmentally friendly materials, green energy, renewable energy... With the goal of installing a capacity of 2 - 3 MWp/year for the farm cluster, the Group is cooperating to continue installing rooftop solar power systems at TH cow farms in Nghe An, Thanh Hoa, Da Lat... in the form of "self-production and self-consumption".
The creation of “green electricity” from self-produced solar energy has helped TH Group make its mark as a pioneer in responding to the Government’s National Program on economical and efficient use of energy for the 2019-2030 period, aiming to save fossil energy use, contribute to protecting the country’s environment, and join hands to complete the goal of net zero emissions by 2050 as Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has committed to the international community.
Looking more broadly, with nearly 1 million hectares of forest and a province with forest coverage of up to 58% of its natural area, Nghe An has great potential for wood export and carbon credit. Currently, the province has attracted 4 investment projects in clean charcoal processing and biomass pellet production from wood, firewood and other forest products. With a forest-certified raw material area of nearly 25,000 hectares, wood factories in Thanh Huong commune (Thanh Chuong), clean charcoal production in Dong Van (Que Phong), biomass pellet production in VSIP Nghe An 1 Industrial Park and Nam Cam Industrial Park have opened up an orientation to utilize waste from agriculture and forestry to return to circular production. With a capacity of over 1 million tons of firewood to produce about 500,000 tons of biomass pellets/year, each year it brings in an export turnover of nearly 800 million USD for Nghe An.
Recently, within the framework of trade investment promotion activities with the leaders of Nghe An province, the representative of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Federal Republic of Germany) based on a survey of Nghe An energy infrastructure recommended that Germany could import some goods from Vietnam or German enterprises could consider Vietnam as an investment location, but the German business community wants to use input materials for production as clean or renewable energy, instead of fossil energy or hydropower as at present.
In fact, in order to use energy effectively and economically, since 2010, the National Assembly has issued the Law on Efficient and Economical Use of Energy. Accordingly, every year in the hot and dry season, when the demand for electricity increases, the Government, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the EVN Electricity Group often encourage people to use energy effectively and economically; respond to World Environment Day by turning off the lights during Earth Hour...
Mr. Pham Van Hoa - Director of the Department of Industry and Trade said: Due to the impact of the El Nino phenomenon, the hot weather, drought, and water shortage have seriously affected hydroelectric reservoirs, causing difficulties in the national grid system's electricity supply. In order to promote electricity saving and ensure safe and stable electricity supply in the province in 2023, especially during the peak of hot weather, the Department of Staff of the Provincial People's Committee issued Directive 11/CT-UBND dated June 5, 2023 on promoting electricity saving in the dry season and 2023; strengthen propaganda to raise public awareness of the current difficult situation in electricity supply, especially during the peak of hot weather to ensure safety and stability in electricity supply.
Currently, due to the impact of climate change, the electricity produced by hydropower plants has decreased, leading to a decrease in supply. In early 2023, the Ministry of Industry and Trade agreed to a plan to encourage the development of rooftop solar power. Capacity under 1 MWp does not have to be reported to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and rooftop projects that "self-produce and self-consume" are encouraged. However, when developing renewable energy strongly, it also faces great challenges.
According to Dr. Nguyen Manh Hien - Chairman of the Scientific Council, Clean Energy Association, to promote the development of renewable energy, there needs to be a preferential policy mechanism on electricity prices and loan interest rates for power projects from biomass sources because of low investment costs and high capacity factors. In addition, the process, procedures and investment costs are not cheap, each MWp requires 13-15 billion VND, so not all businesses are qualified to invest in solar panels.
In fact, enterprises investing and applying solar power in Nghe An such as TH Group, Nghe An Petroleum Company, Trung Do Joint Stock Company and enterprises in WHA Industrial Park or VSIP 1, in order to implement smoothly, must separate the project and invest in a scale of less than 1 MWp/project and mainly "self-produce, self-consume" to reduce complicated procedures... It is known that, immediately after the guidance of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, VSIP Nghe An 1 Industrial Park had 6 enterprises installing solar panels with a total capacity of 11 MWP. Meanwhile, in WHA Industrial Park, 4 units in the Industrial Park have installed rooftop solar panels with a total capacity of 8.54 MWp.
According to EVN Nghe An, currently, the province has 22 hydropower plants in operation with a total capacity of 935.9 MW and an electricity output of about 3 billion kWh/year. According to calculations, the province's electricity output meets over 70% of the province's consumption demand (electricity consumption of 4.2 billion kWh). For rooftop solar power projects, in 2022, Nghe An will have just over 800 customers using them with a total capacity of 91.93 MWp (equivalent to 73.54 MW). The number of corporate customers using rooftop solar power with a capacity of 100 KWp or more is 94 enterprises with a total capacity of 85.1 MWp (equivalent to 68.08 MW). This is a modest number, not reflecting the potential for investment, construction and use of renewable energy in Nghe An.
Therefore, according to Ms. Le Thi Thu Huong - Head of Energy Department, Department of Industry and Trade, to ensure national energy security, it is necessary to review all power generation projects that have been invested and are about to be put into operation in the area. Invest in infrastructure to maximize the capacity of hydropower plants that have been invested and are about to be put into operation; at the same time, check the progress to urge renewable power generation projects such as wind power in Quynh Lap (Hoang Mai Town), 2 solar power projects worth over 7,000 billion VND of MK Joint Stock Company and Thien Minh Duc Group in Ngoc Son and Tan Thang communes (Quynh Luu) have been approved. In addition, it is necessary to attract more power generation projects to replace coal-fired thermal power in Quynh Lap (Hoang Mai Town) according to the national power plan 8.
Discussing the current energy development policy, Mr. Tran Quoc Thanh - former Director of the Department of Science and Technology said: Currently, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is drafting a macro-level framework policy for solar power development (taxes, fees, connection mechanisms, procedures, etc.). However, localities need to proactively develop and promulgate mechanisms and policies to support organizations, businesses and households to install rooftop solar power in offices; rooftops of headquarters, factories, restaurants, hotels for businesses; rooftops of houses for people to produce and consume for themselves.
According to Mr. Thanh, to encourage the development of solar energy, the Provincial People's Committee needs to assign a unit with the function of collecting data on sunny days/hours during the year, solar radiation in different regions in the province to advise people on appropriate solutions. The most practical and effective is to install rooftop batteries in offices and factories in industrial parks and clusters because they directly serve production and daily life; at the same time, it reduces investment costs for purchasing rechargeable batteries.
At the COP 26 Conference in Glasgow - Scotland, UK (November 2021), the Prime Minister of Vietnam committed to developing and implementing measures to achieve net zero emissions (abbreviated as Net Zero) by 2050. One of the measures to achieve Net Zero is to develop renewable energy to gradually replace fossil energy (coal, oil, gas), including solar energy. The Government has approved the VIII Power Plan, affirming the target of electricity output using renewable energy by 2030 to reach 30.9 - 39.2%, and by 2050 to reach 67.5 - 71.5%. In particular, by 2030, Vietnam strives to have 50% of office buildings and 50% of houses using self-produced and self-consumed rooftop solar power.
Recently, speaking at the conference on implementing Vietnam's commitments at the 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh directed many specific tasks related to forest carbon credit management, pilot mechanism for direct electricity trading, encouraging the development of distributed/rooftop solar power projects, hydrogen production in Vietnam, proposing and building a separate chapter on renewable energy in the amendment of the Electricity Law...
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized: Green development, energy conversion, and emission reduction are inevitable and irreversible trends that Vietnam cannot stand outside of. They are also an opportunity to develop and restructure the economy in a green and sustainable direction.
This requires ministries and branches to promptly complete synchronous mechanisms, policies and legal documents to remove difficulties and obstacles, mobilize the participation of the whole society in implementing Vietnam's commitments at COP26; attract resources to respond to climate change and energy conversion; encourage domestic and foreign organizations and individuals to participate in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, saving energy, developing environmentally friendly production models; allocate resources to implement...
