Vietnamese multi-industry group T&T and a leading wind power developer, Orsted, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) about a strategic collaboration on offshore wind development in Vietnam on September 9, according to Orsted’s own newsletter published on the same day. During this collaboration, two groups agreed to bring joint effort and an investment of USD30bn in developing three greenfield wind projects along the coasts of the Binh Thuan and Ninh Thuan provinces in the next two decades. The total generation capacity is estimated to be around ten gigawatts (GW), occupying 2% of Vietnam’s offshore wind potential in accordance with the World Bank Group’s study.

In recent years, Vietnam shows an increasing demand for energy, while oil products and coal are the main energy sources in Vietnam, accounting for 71% of its energy supply structure based on IEA’s data. To lower the reliance on traditional energy resources, the Vietnamese government issued the revised National Power Development Plan for 2011 to 2020, which was also known as the Power Master Plan VII. The plan stated the government’s renewable energy target of achieving 21% in total energy capacity by 2030. It also aimed to install over 20GW of renewables capacity by 2030 under long-term power purchase agreements (PPA).

Thanks to the long coastline of more than 3,000 km and the monsoonal climate zone, Vietnam possesses considerable wind resources and higher potential to develop wind power projects than any other South Asian country. Except for the latest wind project collaboration, over 40 wind projects with capacity scaling from 6 mega-watts (MW) to 800MW are under development or in operation in Vietnam. For example, a private Irish energy company, Mainstream Renewable Power, entered an agreement to develop a 500MW offshore wind farm with a Vietnamese technology company in November 2020.

Sources:

https://orsted.com/en/media/newsroom/news/2021/09/951339145832925

https://www.iea.org/countries/viet-nam

https://energypedia.info/wiki/Wind_Energy_Country_Analysis_Vietnam

https://www.mainstreamrp.com/insights/Agreement-with-AIT-to-co-develop-500-mw-offshore-wind-project/

https://www.globalbusinessoutlook.com/vietnams-renewable-energy-growth/