The event named EIC Connect Energy Vietnam 2018 was organized by the British Consulate General in HCMC in collaboration with the Energy Industry Council (EIC), Vietnam Electricity and Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group on 17 May, 2018.
Mr. Simon McDonald, Permanent Deputy Minister of British Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the EIC Connect Energy Vietnam 2018 event was organized to connect enterprises in the energy sector of the two countries. This has been the largest energy delegation of UK coming to Vietnam so far.
“In the next 20 years, the energy sector will be the one with a large number of opportunities because the demand for energy in many countries is rocketing, particularly in developing countries such as Vietnam,” said Mr. Simon McDonald.
Mr. Azman Nasir - Director in Asia-Pacific region of EIC shared that the reason for the UK energy enterprises to select Vietnam as the destination of investment since Vietnam was one of the nation groups planning for investment in the energy sector in the coming years. This also brought great opportunities for the UK enterprises specializing in supplying equipment and machinery for energy projects.
Vietnam is becoming an energy importer, it was initially energy exporter, because of the rapidly increasing energy demand from the people. Therefore, it is essential to connect enterprises in the UK to learn experiences and establish the investment cooperation with one another.
Vietnam is one of the 10 countries with the greatest demand for electric power growth and in order to meet the demand by 2030, we will continue to develop such traditional energy sources as coal, gas and oil, hydropower in parallel with developing renewable energy sources such as solar power, wind power.
Because of the highly increasing demand, the Government has made policies on encouraging the development of renewable energy sources projects. Currently, a lot of enterprises have submitted their project reports to the Ministry of Industry and Trade over the past time. Leaders of the Ministry of Industry and Trade have approved 33 projects of generating solar power and many wind power projects are to be deployed in the coming time.
Mr. Nguyen Van Vy, Deputy Chairman of Vietnam Energy Association used to say that Vietnam was a country with great potential for developing renewable energy, but so far, this source of energy in Vietnam has not been properly developed.
Currently, with modern technologies, the turbine can generate power at a wind speed of only from 5m/s. It is estimated that about 40,000-50,000MW of wind power could be generated from the mainland of Vietnam, if the potential for offshore wind power is calculated, Vietnam could generate over 100,000MW.
Solar radiation in Vietnam is also considered as an infinite energy source. The average solar radiation level can reach 3-5kWh/m2/day, the average number of sunlight hour is about 2,500 - 3,000 hours per year.
For biomass energy, Vietnam is a country with developed agriculture, forestry and fishery sectors, a large amount of by-product generated the forests, sea and agricultural activities. Additionally, industrial, domestic waste from cities can be utilized for power generation.