Vietnam plans to bring renewable energy to around 600,000 households in rural, mountainous and out-of-the-way coastal areas by 2020, the Institute of Energy has said.

Hoang Tien Dung, director of the institute, told a seminar in HCMC on Thursday, that at present one million households with four million people nationwide don’t have access to electricity supply.

The country is thus looking to supply power for all rural households and 600,000 of these will be provided with renewable energy such as wind, solar and biomass power.

Dung said Vietnam has put renewable energy on its power development agenda, and it will account for 6 percent of the nation’s total power output by 2030.

Renewable energy output capacity will amount to an estimated 13,000 megawatts within the next decade, according to a master power development plan approved by the government in July.

Dung said Vietnam has a huge potential for renewable energy but this source of power now makes up for only 2 percent of the country’s total output of 100 billion kilowatt hours.

Speaking on Thursday’s seminar, scientists and investors involved in renewable energy projects said the country could face an imbalance between energy supply and demand in the next few years as a result of volatile global energy prices, the saturation by 2020 of local hydropower sources, and limited gas and coal supply.

Le Van Khoa, deputy director of the HCMC Department of Industry and Trade, stressed the need to rapidly develop renewable energy to ensure the nation’s energy security in the future.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has submitted a renewable energy development strategy until 2030 with a vision towards 2050, which, if approved, will help remove institutional and policy hindrances to renewable energy research and development in Vietnam.

Trinh Quang Dung, director of SolarLab, said the country would need to set out to build a new-energy industry responsible for development renewable energy sources as soon as possible.

“Vietnam may import energy after 2015, which will make it dependant on global prices,” Dung said.

Binh Thuan Province, the first location in the country to generate clean energy, expects to generate a total wind power output of 5,475 million kilowatt hours worth US$430 million given the price of 7.8 US cents per kilowatt hour.

Source: TBKT