On June 25, 2019, TTP Phu Yen Joint Stock Company held the inauguration ceremony to officially put into operation Hoa Hoi Solar Power Plant in Hoa Hoi commune, Phu Hoa district (Phu Yen). This is the largest renewable energy project in Phu Yen province with a total investment cost of VND 4,985 billion and is also the first solar power plant in the province.
Two days before, BCG - CME Long An 1 Solar Power Plant located in Thanh An commune, Thanh Hoa district (Long An) has been synchronized with the national power grid and put into official operation. This is one of the first solar power plants in Long An province, being built on an area of over 50 hectares, with a capacity of 40.6MWp and including 123,000 solar panels. The total investment cost of this sola power plant is over VND 1,000 billion, invested by Bamboo Capital Group (BCG) - Copper Mountain Energy (CME) and Vietnam - Oman Fund (VOI).
Currently 16 solar power projects have been developing in Long An province with a total capacity of 1,072MW. Nearly a hundred of commercial solar power plants have been being massively developed in Ninh Thuan, Soc Trang, Central Highlands, Tay Ninh and many other provinces.
Not only attracting large domestic investors, in recent years, Vietnam is emerging to become a potential destination for foreign businesses who are interested in investing in renewable energy. According to the latest statistics, up to now, there have been hundreds of solar power projects being registered in Vietnam with a total capacity of up to 17,000MW.
Thai investors have recently acquired shares of solar power projects in Vietnam. For example, in April 2019, Thailand Export and Import Bank (EXIM Thailand) announced an additional USD 65 million for two companies Eastern Power Group Plc and Communication & System Solution Plc to finance two solar power plants in Phu Yen with a total capacity of about 100MW. In 2018, B.Grimm Power PLC of Thailand signed an agreement to acquire 80% of shares of TTP Phu Yen Joint Stock Company, the investor of a 257MW solar power plant project in Phu Yen. Previously, this investor had cooperated with a local company to develop the largest solar PV project in Southeast Asia in Tay Ninh province.
It is forecasted that, given the fact that the authorities are considering a new feed-in tariff scheme for solar power projects, encouraging businesses to invest in this area, the solar power market will be even more bustling in the near future.
An appropriate investment policy should be in place
Economical and low installation costs, however how renewable energy, in particular solar power, can "fill in the gap" and furthermore replace thermal power generation in the future is a difficult puzzle.
At the meeting on supplying electricity in the dry season and preparing to energize solar power projects recently organized by Vietnam Electricity (EVN), Mr. Vu Xuan Khu, a leader of the National Load Dispatch Center (A0) expressed his concerns about the threat of "shutdown" of solar power sources while just in a day, the number of output variation of over 50% due to weather conditions is 3 - 5 times, causing huge challenges to the power system, especially in the context of a limited reserve margin.
Besides, conventional power sources such as thermal power, gas fired turbines, ect., are capable of adjusting their generation in conformity with electricity demand. As for solar power plants, generation output depends on weather conditions so it is not predictable and controllable.
The leader of A0 said that the threat will be not so serious if the solar power network is wide enough, where power supplies in other areas can compensate for local shortage of an area. In case that bad weather conditions last all day or many days in a large area, which the meteorological authority can absolutely predict, then backup power sources will be operated, and no efforts will be needed to deal with it.
Thus, in addition to a reasonable tariff mechanism, the development of a detailed and well-prepared plan for each province to develop renewable energy such as solar power is extremely necessary and urgent.
Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Dat - Former Head of Civil Engineering Faculty, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology assessed that, in Vietnam today, solar power has developed massively but still constrained in terms of technology level. This precious energy source has many unexploited mysteries, including what happens when solar power is affected by other natural phenomena such as full moon or crescent moon; how solar power quality varies in these cases, etc.
To really achieve solar energy science and technology evolutions, it is time for the Government to invest in building experimental centers to enrich the solar power applications. These serious data sets are to optimally design solar power systems, towards further research of solar panels in order to use them more conveniently and flexibly in many different fields in the economy, lessening the society’s fuel demand. In summary, a systematic and serious investment should be made, on the basis of the Government’s policies, in order to strongly develop a solar power and renewable energy industry.