Support to the Up-scaling of Wind Power in Vietnam (GIZ)

Title:	Up-scaling of wind power in Vietnam
Commissioned by:	German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) under the German Climate Technology Initiative (DKTI)
Country:	Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Lead Execution agency:	Ministry of Industry and Trade
Overall Term:	2014 to 2018

Overview

The Support to the Up-Scaling of Wind Power in Vietnam project aims to address market and regulatory barriers as well as capacity needs through technical assistance, in the period 2014-2018.

It is implemented by the Ministry for Industry and Trade (MOIT) and its General Directorate for Energy (GDE), as well as the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. The project is commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Economic Development and Cooperation (BMZ) under the German Climate Technology Initiative (DKTI). It consists of three Action Areas, each geared towards the development of the sector.

Context

Driven by rapid economic development, electricity demand in Vietnam has experienced double-digit growth rates during the past decade. In the future, this growth is expected to continue, albeit at single digits. The revised National Power Development Master Plan VII foresees an installed electricity capacity of 60,000 MW in 2020; 96,500 MW in 2025 and 129,500 MW in 2030. In order to meet growing demand, the Government of Vietnam seeks to include non-hydro renewable energy sources into the national energy mix.

For wind power in particular, the Government has designed a roadmap for its development for the period up to 2020, with an outlook to 2030. The installed capacity targets were set at 800 MW in 2020, 2,000 MW in 2025 and 6,000 MW in 2030. Vietnam has promising potential for wind power. With more than 3,000 km of coastline, and located in the monsoon climate zone, the country depicts several areas with good wind conditions. According to the most recent estimate, a study performed by the MOIT in collaboration with the World Bank, over 2,600 square kilometers have an annual average wind speed above 6 m/s at 80 m above ground level.

Despite the encouraging measures and promising wind resources, only 190 MW of wind power are operational, which is humble compared to the potential available and compared to other countries. Different causes for this slow development have been identified:

• The FiT is set at 7.8 US cents per kWh (since 2011) and is perceived as too low for investors to overcome the risk related to wind power development in the Vietnamese market. 
• High quality wind data sets were scarce and incomplete.
• The development of wind power projects in Vietnam and related approval process is complex, and lacked clarity. This increased the perceived risk of wind power development, and created a further barrier for investment.
• Financial institutions in Vietnam had limited experience in wind power financing. Therefore, limited products were available on the Vietnamese market to finance wind power projects.

Approach

The project focuses on three areas to promote the scaling up of wind energy in Vietnam:

1. Improving planning capacities and the legal and regulatory environment for utilizing wind energy: The project makes use of studies and data collection to advise national policy-makers on topics such as the feed-in tariff and wind measurements.
2. Increasing the sector-specific and methodological expertise of public and private stakeholders: One of the project’s aims is to establish this specific knowledge in Vietnam in the long term. Its activities include training Vietnamese project developers and consulting firms in the technical and methodological aspects of wind park construction. In addition, local banks receive training in financing wind energy projects.    
3. Fostering technology and research cooperation: The project promotes knowledge building through technology and research cooperation initiatives in the private sector and among education and research institutions in Vietnam and Germany. For instance, it organizes events for promoting exchange between Vietnamese and German research institutions and provides support for cooperative research activities.

The consulting firm Lahmeyer International is supporting the implementation of this project.

Results

On the basis of studies about the cost of wind energy production in Vietnam, the project advised the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade on raising feed-in tariffs for wind energy to improve the conditions for investment in this area.

Wind measurement data were collected and published in the World Bank Open Data Platform to facilitate planning processes for scaling up wind energy. In addition, the project has drawn up and published a set of Wind Investment Guidelines for developing and financing wind energy projects in Vietnam (Wind investment Guidelines Vol. 1 focusses on the dind project development, Wind Investment Guideliines Vol.2 focusses on wind project financing).

It has enhanced expert knowledge about wind energy among project developers and banks through targeted training courses that were organized after conducting a needs analysis. Moreover, the project has assisted Vietnamese grid operators in integrating renewable energies into their grid infrastructure.

The project is providing support for three joint research projects by Vietnamese and German research institutes that were initiated as a result of a specialist event organized by the project on the topic of wind energy.

Further Information

Please contact Tobias Cossen (Tobias.Cossen@giz.de); Head of Project, GIZ Vietnam 

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