by Dong Hua, Tao Jun
HO CHI MINH CITY, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- "There are no nuclear power plants here now and like our guests, I prefer wind power," Nguyen Van Trung, an employee of the Bau Truc resort in Vietnam's central Ninh Thuan province, told Xinhua on Tuesday, pointing to the tourists strolling around the bungalows made from red bricks and tiles along the windy seaside.
The local man, his complexion darkened by the sun and the wind of the breathtaking coastal area in Ninh Thuan, said the media here had reported that Vietnam's top legislature in late November decided to scrap its first nuclear power plant project that would have had a capacity of 4,000 megawatts and cost nearly 9 billion U.S. dollars in Ninh Thuan. This was not because of technology or safety reasons, but due to the country's current economic situation.
When Vietnam was making preparations for building the plant, also the first in Southeast Asia, which was scheduled to become operational by 2028, its cost was estimated to double to around 18 billion U.S. dollars compared to when the plan was first tabled.
According to the top legislature's resolution in late 2009, Ninh Thuan 1 nuclear power plant would be built in Ninh Thuan's Thuan Nam District, and Ninh Thuan 2 nuclear power plant in the province's Ninh Hai District. Ninh Thuan's center is some 350 km from Ho Chi Minh City.
"Many local and foreign tourists, including Westerners and Chinese people, who stay at our resort told me that a nuclear-free Ninh Thuan would be more attractive to them, and the province could tap renewable energy sources, especially solar and wind power," the middle-aged man said, his face brightening with a warm smile.
In a working visit to Ninh Thuan in September, the head of Vietnam's Economic Commission Nguyen Van Binh told the provincial leaders that the province's biggest asset is renewable energy, especially solar and wind power. Ninh Thuan can become a clean energy hub of Vietnam, he said.
Ninh Thuan has 14 zones with a total area of some 8,000 hectares, mainly in the three districts of Ninh Phuoc, Thuan Nam and Thuan Bac, which have the most potential for wind power development. The province sees winds gusting with speeds of between 6.4-9.6 meters per second, for 10 months of the year, which is suitable for wind turbines to operate.
According to an electricity development plan, the estimated total capacity of wind power in Ninh Thuan by 2030 is around 2,500 MW with an output of nearly 5.5 billion kWh. To this end, the province should coordinate with the Ministry of Industry and Trade to quickly develop a scheme on solar and wind power prices to submit to the government for approval, to encourage and lure investors, Binh said.
Earlier, the state-owned Electricity of Vietnam (EVN), the country's biggest power producer and sole distributor, proposed a project on building four wind power plants with a total capacity of 200 MW in Ninh Phuoc District, with an investment of 8,000 billion Vietnamese dong (nearly 359 million U.S. dollars). The project is scheduled to kick off in 2018 and become operational in 2019.
Ninh Thuan and the neighboring province of Binh Thuan have the best wind sources among the 63 localities of Vietnam. On Nov. 25, the Phu Lac wind power plant, with a capacity of 24 MW and costing nearly 1,100 billion Vietnamese dong (49 million U.S. dollars) in Binh Thuan, started generating electricity. This is the third wind power plant in Binh Thuan, after Phong Dien 1 and Phu Quy.
After Phu Lac, its local investor, Thuan Binh Wind Power Company, will continue to build wind and solar power complexes, including Loi Hai with a capacity of 120 MW, Vinh Hao with a capacity of 60 MW, Ea H'Leo with a capacity of 350 MW and Kong Chro with a capacity of 400 MW.
According to a wind power development plan, wind power plants in Binh Thuan will have a total capacity of 700 MW by 2020. To date, Binh Thuan has licensed five wind power projects, said the provincial Department of Industry and Trade.
In November, a Vietnamese firm named Phu Cuong and two foreign groups, including GE from the United States and Mainstream from Ireland, inked a deal to build a wind power plant with a capacity of 800 MW, the biggest of its kind in Vietnam, with a total investment of some 2 billion U.S. dollars in the southern Soc Trang province.
However, some investors told Xinhua that wind power potential in Vietnam in general, and in Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan in particular is huge, but its development remains sluggish, mainly due to capital shortage. "Our biggest headache is that the selling prices of wind power is very low, so we find it difficult to recoup our investment," said the local investor of Thuan Nhien Phong wind power project.
On Tuesday, at a seminar on wind power development held in Hanoi by the Danish Embassy and Vestas, the only global energy company dedicated exclusively to wind energy, many Vietnamese and foreign delegates stated that wind power remained largely untapped because investment costs are too high, selling prices of wind electricity are too low, supply of relevant domestic equipment and services are limited, and technical human resources are not good enough.
At the seminar, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Hoang Quoc Vuong, said that along with Vietnam's high economic growth, electricity demand will be huge. The country's annual electricity production is projected to grow 10.7 percent in the 2016-2020 period, and 8.6 percent between 2021 and 2025, he noted.
According to Vietnam's adjusted national electricity development plan made for the 2011-2020 period and with a vision to 2030 approved by the government in March 2016, total wind power capacity will reach 2,000 MW by 2025 and around 6,000 MW by 2030.
Wind power will account for some 0.8 percent of Vietnam's total electricity production by 2020, around 1 percent by 2025 and about 2.1 percent by 2030.
Vietnam's potential wind power capacity is estimated at 513,360 MW, roughly equal to the projected capacity of the country's entire electricity sector in 2020, according to a recent survey by the World Bank.
"We sometimes call our tourism 4S, or sun, sea, sand and shopping. More and more fields of environmentally-friendly wind power along our beautiful seashores will not only generate more electricity, but also eye-catching views for tourists," Trung, said, smiling pleasantly.
