Specifically, for the form of rooftop solar power which is attracting the attentions and investments of many households and businesses, the purchase price of produced power put on the grid shall be 1,943 VND/kWh (equivalent to 8.38 cents/kWh). As the application duration of new fixed purchase price shall last for 20 years but this price shall be applied to projects connected to grid and put into commercial operation by the end of 31 December 2020 only, businesses must race to benefit from the prices recently issued by the Government.
The trend of investing in solar rooftop power is developing relatively well
On 7 April 2020, the Southern Power Corporation said that in March 2020 only, this Corporation signed records of two-way meter installation for nearly 600 customers and the total number of customers installing a solar power system has reached 1,615. As accumulated to March 2020, the Corporation has made payments of nearly VND 145 billion to more than 4,000 customers for solar rooftop power.
Mr. Le Anh Vu, Director of Source Energy Co., Ltd., said that though the price of solar rooftop power is not as high as expected, so households would install the system since the decrease in power price is inconsiderable, the equipment cost has been lower. His company installed a rooftop power system in the investment form of selling power to the grid, with an installed capacity of 100kW at the end of 2019. Up to now, such system has generated 25,000kWh to the grid.
Mr. Vu commented that the new prices will promote the wave of investing in solar rooftop power by households, buildings and factory roofs. However, the decision takes effect since 22 May to 31 December 2020 only. This means that the remaining time for implementation is just over 7 months, causing tough difficulties for both investors and businesses in installing solar power systems on their factory roofs. Particularly in the current context, the ongoing happenings of COVID-19 pandemic is exerting impacts on the progress of installing equipment and ordering to-be-imported equipment.
Sharing the same opinion, Mr. Vu Dinh Khanh, Director of HIGG Energy Investment and Development Co., Ltd., said that the people’s current demand for solar power installation is particularly high.
Since August 2019 so far, his enterprise has installed more than 100 rooftop power works with a total installed capacity of about 1.5MW, even that fact that the new price has not been applied. Right after the new price is applied, the capacity of to-be-constructed works is expected to reach about 3.5 MW and this enterprise expects to invest for an installed capacity of more than 10MW in provinces.
A current difficulty is that the quantity of available equipment is enough for a few dozen kWp only. For higher demand, businesses have to make orders and wait for 20-30 days on average to receive the equipment. Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic situation, the delivery time can take longer while the application of the incentive policy lasts until 31 December 2020 only, quite a short duration.
However, Mr. Khanh soundly believed that the market of solar power installation in the South would be dynamic again and this will be a sprint race for completion of projects before the policy expiration.