Vietnam’s renewables growth to slow in near-term: report

This is due to regulatory and operational uncertainties, Fitch said.

Vietnam’s renewables growth is at risk of significantly slowing down due to regulatory and operational uncertainties, Fitch Solutions reported.

This comes as the government continues to draft the new National Power Development Plan 2021-2030, which Fitch noted could affect investor sentiment.

“We note that the plan has already been revised four times since the first draft was released in February 2021, with notable differences across each revision, in terms of the roadmap that government wants to adopt for the sector,” the report read in part.

“We believe the lack of a clear policy direction will weigh on near-term investor sentiment.”

Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister had also recently raised that the need to lower the country’s solar capacity targets that are “too high.” At the COP26 Summit, the government also stated plans to modify the PDP8 to reduce the share of liquefied national gas and coal.  

Despite this, Fitch expected renewables growth to pick up again due to strong fundamentals as well as expectations for an ongoing commitment to the sector.

“We maintain our current forecast for non-hydro renewables capacity to more than double over the coming decade, to reach over 50.3GW by 2031,” Fitch also said.