Solar panels installed at IDI Frozen Seafood Plant
According to the research results of the Energy Conservation Center of HCMC (ECC HCMC), in seafood value chain, the energy cost, especially for power cost, ranks the third, only after the material and labour costs. Particularly in the field of shrimp farming, the energy cost accounts over 9% of the total costs.
In the reality, at seafood processing enterprises, the average power consumption of seafood processing activities is around 57 to 2,129 kWh/ton for material and 324 to 4,412 kWh/ton for product; In which, the power consumption for the frozen system is the highest ratio, accounting for 70%.
In recent years, with consultancy and support of the Power sector, seafood processing enterprises have taken many power saving solutions. However, these solutions only focus on the light, air condition, etc.; meanwhile, the energy for production, processing and maintaining in cold storage makes up significant proportion.
At the latest Workshop on rooftop solar power usage for cold storages and Viet Nam seafood processing field, many international experts from Germany International Cooperation Agency (GIZ) said that one of the most efficient solutions was solar power usage. The enterprises can make use of roofs of plant, office building, even parking lot, etc., in order to install solar panels. This not only protects the environment, decrease CO2 emission and pressure on the national power system but also makes use of the solar energy to supply power for production activities.
And the most important thing is that, currently, the cost for rooftop solar power system installation is increasingly cheaper. Especially, the Middle (from Quang Tri to Phu Yen) and the South – with strongly developed seafood processing field and huge potential of solar energy. Particularly in the South, it’s sunny all year round, especially in January, March and April, it’s always sunny from 7 am to 5 pm. The average radiation intensity is often over 3,489 kcal/m2/day, so it’s very suitable for rooftop solar power development.