Developing renewable energy would result in higher electricity prices forconsumers, the official said at a government-private workshop on clean energy technologyjointly held by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) of Vietnam and Japan’sMinistry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) in Hanoi.
According to the official, at the end of 2018, Vietnam’s electricity system rankedsecond among the 10 Southeast Asian nations and 23rd globally interms of capacity, which reaches nearly 50,000 MW at present.
The country’s power demand in service of socio-economic development has beenbasically fulfilled, he said, pointing out adverse impact on nationalsustainable development such as environment pollution and exhausted naturalresources.
Given this, the Vietnamese Government has issued many policies to ease theseimpact while ensuring power supply.
Vuong said the total capacity of hydropower plants hit 22,000 MW in late 2018,and that of solar and win power plants is expected to stand at 1,000 MW and1,500 MW, respectively, at the end of this year.
The estimate is even higher than the target set by Prime Minister Nguyen XuanPhuc in late 2016, with wind power projected at 800 MW and solar power, 850 MW,by 2020.
With an attractive price mechanism, many investors have registered to invest inwind and solar projects in Vietnam, whose number is likely to surpass thegrowth target of 20 percent as set by the Government, he said.
Japanese Deputy Ambassador Daisuke Okabe said the MoIT and the METI have heldministerial talks which touched upon cooperation in energy between the twocountries. In November 2017, the two ministries signed a memorandum ofunderstanding on clean energy in November 2017.
The diplomat expressed his hope that the workshop will find out ways to facilitatenew activities in the low-carbon industry and promote cooperation in theprivate sector.-VNA