Wind Power: When?
Vietnam is considered a country with relatively large wind power potential. This is also a type of renewable energy, less polluting than many other types of energy. However, wind power has not yet developed in Vietnam.
Meanwhile, hydropower in Vietnam is developing to the limit, water is sometimes available and sometimes not, gas and coal for electricity production are not endless. It is expected that from 2015, large quantities of coal will have to be imported for electricity production, therefore, developing renewable energy, including wind power, is an issue that should be given due attention at this time.
The first wind power project in Vietnam is invested and built by Vietnam Renewable Energy Joint Stock Company. 19/20 units of the project have been installed, each unit is a wind turbine generating electricity with a capacity of 1.5MW. Fuhrlander Company (Germany) is the consulting unit, supplying equipment and in charge of installing the units for this wind power project. According to Fuhrlander representative, the actual construction and installation shows that wind power can be a good solution to help Vietnam quickly increase its power generation capacity.
Mr. Van Hung Albert, Chief Representative of Fuhrlander in Vietnam shared: “With the full preparation as in the past time and when the weather permits, we have completed the installation of a 1.5 MW unit with a group of 6 workers in 2-3 days. Thus, in 1 year, with more than 300 days and 6 people, we can install about 100 units with a capacity of 150MW or 250MW. That is just one group of people, but if there are 5 groups, the capacity can be multiplied by 5 times”.
Wind is a renewable energy source with low environmental impact, while other traditional energy sources for electricity generation such as coal, gas, and water are gradually depleted.
According to assessments at a number of recent workshops, Vietnam is one of the countries with abundant wind energy potential due to its coastline of more than 3,000 km, many islands and plateaus located in the tropical monsoon region. Some preliminary surveys have shown that Vietnam's wind energy has a total capacity of 500,000 to 800,000 MW.
According to Mr. To Quoc Tru, Director of the Vietnam Energy Consulting Center: “8000 MW is very large, equal to both nuclear power plants Vietnam is considering building, each of which has only 4000 MW. That is the wind power potential that the Energy Institute has surveyed in certain areas, but if surveyed further, it could be even more.”
In Binh Thuan, the only wind power project has generated electricity to the grid, although the wind potential in Vietnam is not known until now. One of the reasons is that the initial investment for a wind power plant is high, the average electricity price of EVN after the increase is only about 6 cents/kWh, but according to the research of the Vietnam Energy Association, businesses must sell to EVN at 8 cents/kWh for businesses to be willing to invest in wind power.
Mr. Tran Viet Ngai, Chairman of the Vietnam Energy Association, said that if 8 cents can be invested in wind power, then immediately dozens, even hundreds of domestic and foreign investors will jump in. And we can increase wind power capacity to 5,000, 7,000, or even 10,000 MW.
According to VTV
