Vietnam has high potential to develop renewable sources of energy, but the development of these energy sources lags due to the lack of suitable and advanced technologies, said experts at a seminar held in Hanoi.

Vietnam has high potential to develop renewable sources of energy, but the development of these energy sources lags due to the lack of suitable and advanced technologies, said experts at a seminar held in Hanoi.

Currently renewable energies make up only a tiny part of Vietnam’s power supply compared to other energy sources. Government plans aim to raise the volume of power contributed by renewables like wind power, solar energy, geothermal power and biofuels to three percent of the commercial electricity capacity by 2010 and five percent by 2020.

The Government has drawn up several policies to develop renewable energies, including financial policies for projects that follow the clean development mechanism (CDM). Foreign investors are allowed to invest in to building CDM projects in Vietnam with tax preferences, priority in land leasing and State investment credits. CDM products will also be subsidised by the Vietnam Environmental Protection Fund.

The industry is working on a plan to develop renewable energies with non-grid energy projects and energy efficiency programmes.

One expert, Roman Ritter, says Vietnam could even produce all the electricity it needs from recycle energy.

Vietnam is one of 14 countries around the world that has a huge potential for hydro-power with 120,000 mini-hydro power systems and an estimated combined capacity of 300MW. The country has 200 hot-water springs at temperatures of between 40-150 degrees Celsius, most of them in the central region.

Rice husking plants in the Mekong delta region would be able to fuel a power station with a capacity of 70 MW, while the waste materials from sugar cane plants could produce a combined capacity of 250 MW.

Biogas in the Red River Delta and Mekong Delta regions is already used by households for cooking, lighting and running small generators.

Wind power also has a remarkable potential with 860-1,410 kWh per sq.m per year on the islands, 800-1,000 kWh per sq.m per year in coastal regions and 500-800 kWh per sq.m per year in some inland areas.

Solar energy is also plentiful and considered a huge potential for the development of renewable energy. The winter would see about 3-4.5 KWh per sq.m per day of solar radiation and this rises to 6.5 KWh per sq.m in the summer. Vietnam has up to 2,000-2,500 hours of sunshine a year.

VietNamNet/VNA