Vietnam taps wind power to meet energy needs

Denmark's Vestas Wind Systems saw Vietnam's potential for wind power development and swore to support the country's bid to utilise wind as a sustainable energy solution, DTI News reported.

Vietnam has the greatest wind energy potential in the Southeast Asia region, according to Chris Beaufait, president of Vestas Asia Pacific and China. He said at a seminar in Hanoi that the company is willing to finance wind projects along with local partners and assist during the initial phases.

Risk mitigation and easy financing for local investors are both possible with Vestas' products, Beaufait added.

Vestas currently has one active project in Vietnam that holds a capacity of 27.3 million kWh per year. The company has more than 52,000 wind turbines worldwide with a combined capacity of 64GW.

Beaufait said that Vestas could share viable knowledge with its local partners given that it has 35 years of industry experience, making them an expert on the challenges for countries like Vietnam, which is still taking baby steps towards a wind-powered nation.

Vietnam in 2011 expressed support for wind power projects in the country and set an annual target of 1,000MW by 2020, or 0.7 per cent of the country's total electricity production, through the issuance of Decision 37/2011/QD-TTg.

The next phase of the project will see an increase to 6,200MW, or 2.4 per cent, by 2030.

Despite these figures, wind power projects remain few partly due to limited technology and to its high cost, making it less attractive compared to other renewable sources of energy like thermopower and hydropower, said Le Tuan Phong, deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade's Department of Energy.