French oil company Total Energies [TTE:FP] has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Vietnam’s industrial property developer KCN Vietnam to provide solar power to the latter, as reported by Nikkei Asia on August 9. Total Energies will install 280,000 square meters of solar panels on KCN’s factory and warehouse roofs, generating 51 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity per year. The rooftop solar panels could help KCN avoid around 23,390 tons of carbon emissions annually, and the French company will operate the photovoltaics for 20 years. The value of the deal has yet to be disclosed.

Total Energies sees Asia as a crucial market for realizing the firm’s ambition of 100 GW of renewable power generation capacity worldwide by 2030. In April, the company also formed a collaboration with Japanese oil company ENEOS [5020:JP] to jointly develop 2 GW of solar power capacity in Asia over the next five years and sell renewable power to businesses in the region. Vietnam has a booming demand for renewable energy, as the country looks to stop constructing coal-fired power plants from now on according to Vietnam’s Power Development Plan for the 2021-2030 period (PDP8). Under the draft plan enacted this April, Vietnam will slash the share of coal-fired power in the country’s power installation to 9.6% by 2045 from 32% at the end of 2020 to fulfill its commitment to carbon neutrality by 2050. The draft also projected that wind and solar power would account for 50.7% of the domestic electricity supply by 2045.

Sources:

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Energy/France-s-Total-to-build-solar-panels-in-renewable-hungry-Vietnam

https://www.vietnam-briefing.com/news/vietnams-power-development-plan-draft-incorporates-renewables-reduces-coal.html/

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Business-deals/TotalEnergies-allies-with-Japan-oil-company-on-solar-power-in-Asia

https://cleanenergynews.ihsmarkit.com/research-analysis/vietnam-revs-up-plan-for-transition-from-coal-to-wind-solar.html