The future for renewable energy in Vietnam is looking up thanks to a new decision by state authorities to increase the feed-in tariff for wind power.
According to an announcement by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, on September 10, the Vietnamese government approved a draft plan to raise the feed-in tariff to US$0.085 per kilowatt-hour for onshore projects and US$0.098 per kilowatt-hour for offshore projects. The figure was US$0.078 for both previously.
The updated rates will be applied to future wind energy projects with a commercial operation date before November 1, 2021 and will be valid for 20 years. Feed-in tariffs are policies meant to accelerate investments in renewable energy by essentially paying people for the green energy they produce.
The new decision was positively received by industry experts, who consider it an important move in attracting investments to the wind power market in Vietnam.
“Now, with the clear signal from the Vietnamese Government to increase the tariff, we expect many projects to push through and be implemented,” Tobias Cossen, director of “Support to Up-Scaling of Wind Power in Vietnam,” a wind energy project under the German International Development Agency (GIZ)’s Energy Support Program, said in a statement.
“Defining feed-in tariffs is always a complex and sometimes ‘emotional’ topic. The revised tariff will give investors and financial institutions which provide long-term capital the security they need. At the same time, the tariff is still lower than in other Southeast Asian markets,” Cossen added.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade submitted a proposal in November 2016 suggesting a similar increase in the price of wind power to assist developers in Vietnam.
[Photo via Creative Commons]
