Vietnam notes huge RE potential

Vietnam plans to generate 11% of its energy from renewable sources by 2050 from only 5% today.

That jump will be made possible by exploiting Vietnam’s huge but untapped RE potential. This potential energy includes:

• A total wind energy potential estimated at 713,000 MW, of which 510,000 MW is on the mainland and 200,000 on Vietnam’s islands.

• Around 1,050 potential sites for small-sized hydropower plants with capacities ranging from 0.1 MW to less than 30 MW. These sites have a total capacity of 4,004MW equivalent to 16.7 million GWh per year.

• Over 300 hot streams with temperatures ranging from 30 °C to 148 °C mainly situated in Northwest and Central Vietnam with is an estimated geothermal power potential of 1,400 MW.

• An average solar energy density of about 150 kCal per cm2 equivalent to 43.9 million tons of oil per year.

• A biogas energy potential estimated at 6.4 MTOE/year. Of this total, 60% will be derived from agricultural byproducts and 30% from animal manure.

The government adopted a National Energy Development Strategy in 2007 to accelerate the development of RE sources.

The strategy includes increasing RE use to about 3% of the total commercial primary energy from a negligible percentage today. This will be equivalent to 1.4 million TOE in 2010 and will increase to 5% by 2020 and to 8% by 2050 or the equivalent of 35 million TOE.