The natural feature with abundant sunshine is a critical factor to enable Binh Thuan province to take the lead in the group of provinces which can comprehensively develop electric power industry. In details, due to scarcity of rain, the number of sunshine hours in a year is always at an ideal level and a majority of the province’s area has the average solar radiation intensity in the range of 5 kWh / m2, Binh Thuan therefore has plentiful advantages for developing solar energy. A lot of investors are interested in the large solar energy development potential in Binh Thuan province and expect to develop projects there.
The investment attraction structure of Binh Thuan province has shifted obviously towards motivating clean energy development in parallel with key economic sectors, in order to steadily realize the objective to become a national energy center by the year 2020 with the total installed capacity of more than 12,000 MW.
Up to June 2017, investment approval decisions or investment licenses have been granted to five solar energy projects located in Tuy Phong, Bac Binh district and Phan Thiet city with the total investment cost of more than VND 14,800 billion. Some of them are large solar energy projects, for example, a 200 MW Solar Energy Power Plant situated at Thien Nghiep commune, Phan Thiet city, covering 309 ha land area; another 150 MW solar photovoltaic projects located in Bac Binh district and Phan Thiet province covering a land area of 211 ha, etc.
In addition, until now the People’s Committee of the province has agreed in writing investigations and studies of nearly 30 solar energy projects which are registered for development and implementation in the province. Two out of those projects have completed their documentations for being additionally included in the provincial power development master plan, which have been approved by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, namely Eco Seido Solar Power Plant (40 MW capacity) and Da Mi Solar Power Plant (47 MW capacity).
Currently, more than 400 locations have been planned for solar energy development in the province, requiring the total land area of approximately 7,730 ha. Most of them are located in Bac Binh, Tuy Phong, Ham Tan areas… According to the master plan, until 2030, Binh Thuan province may attract investments in developing solar energy with capacity totaling up to 4000 MW. This is one of the favorable conditions for Binh Thuan province to become a clean energy center in the future.