Vietnam

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dũng has approved the list of investment project of power transmission network 1 worth $155.6 million, of which $130 million is planned to borrow from Asian Development Bank.

First Solar would delay $300 million factory in Cu Chi district, Ho Chi Minh City.

Electricity of Vietnam invested up to 2.644 trillion dong in October.

Japan and Vietnam on Monday reaffirmed their plan to build a nuclear power plant in the Southeast Asian country using Japanese technology, even as Tokyo still struggles to put the world’s worst nuclear accident in 25 years under control. Last October, energy-hungry Vietnam accepted Japan as a partner in the construction of two nuclear reactors in Ninh Thuan province in central Vietnam. But in March, a massive earthquake and tsunami knocked out the cooling functions at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, 240 km (150 miles) northeast of Tokyo, triggering fuel rod meltdowns, explosions and radiation leakage. A joint statement, released after Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda met with his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung, said Japan was committed to enhance nuclear safety by sharing lessons learnt from the Fukushima accident. “The Vietnamese side, welcoming such Japan’s efforts, … expressed its strong desire for the provisions of nuclear technologies from Japan,” the statement said. “The Japanese side expressed its intention to provide Vietnam with the technologies that represent the world’s highest level of nuclear safety,” it added. Exporting social infrastructure, such as high-speed railway systems and nuclear power generation systems, is a pillar of Japan’s ruling Democratic Party’s growth strategy. But the Fukushima accident shattered the public’s trust on the safety of nuclear power generation and raised doubt over such strategy.

Vietnam's small and medium scaled hydropower plant projects with the designed capacity of less than 30 MW have not pushed through because of lack of capital.

HCM City Energy Conservation Centre collaborated with Dong Nai Industrial Consultancy Center to hold the conference energy efficiency workshop in Dong Nai.

Vietnam Development Bank has signed a credit agreement worth US$1 billion with Export-Import Bank of the U.S. to fund a major wind power development plan in the Mekong Delta in 2011-2015.

The public has been reassured that the Vietnam's electricity price increase won’t be decided in the last months of the year.

Construction of a dam across the Song Bac River for a hydropower plant in northern Ha Giang Province's Quang Binh District is now underway.

The government of Vietnam should have policies that reward producers of electricity from wind and other natural resources, suggests the general chair of the World Council for Renewable Energy.

The VND33 trillion Mong Duong 1 Thermal Power Plant in the northern province of Quang Ninh is now being constructed by the Electricity of Vietnam.

Up to 60 percent of a grant from Denmark will be used in Vietnam for effective use of water resources, clean water supply for the poor, wind energy and activities to cope with climate change.

The Export-Import Bank of the US has agreed on a credit package worth US$1 billion for a wind power development programme in the Mekong River Delta between 2011 and 2015. A letter of intent to this effect was signed in Hanoi on October 18 by representatives of the Vietnam Development Bank (VDB) and US EXIMBANK. Under the deal, VDB is allowed to borrow international loans channelled through the US bank for wind power projects in Vietnam. Currently, phase I of such a project is under way in the southern province of Bac Lieu, using VDB’s domestic loans. The first turbine with equipment imported from the US’s General Electric Company will be inaugurated in early November 2011. Project investors will negotiate a business contract with General Electric to supply equipment to the project, using loans from US EXIMBANK. According to Vu Duc Dam, Minister and Chairman of the Government Office, Vietnam is being seriously affected by climate change. The Vietnamese government encourages and creates conditions for developing environmentally-friendly technology. David Shear, US Ambassador to Vietnam, who witnessed the signing of the deal, said the US Government is interested in developing renewable energy in Vietnam. US investment in the Bac Lieu project will help contribute to meeting the goal of increasing cooperation between the two countries.

Vietnam's Deputy Prime Minsiter Vu Van Ninh empahsized that the government would not approve any increase in power price in order to offset Electricity of Vietnam Group’s losses from its non-core investments.

The construction of a dam across the Song Bac River for a hydropower plant in northern Ha Giang province is now underway.

The construction license has been granted to the An Khanh Thermal Power Joint Stock Company by the Thai Nguyen Provincial People’s Committee for the An Khanh 2 Thermal Power Plant.