After three months of construction, the first 1.5MW wind-power turbine in Binh Thuan province generated power on August 21.

Wind power industry in Vietnam

This is the first turbine to become operational in a large-scale wind power project invested in by the Vietnam Recycled Energy JS Company (REVN).

REVN’s project has a total capacity of 120 MW, with 80 turbines, and it is scheduled to be completed in 2011.

This project is being carried out in several phases. In the first phase, REVN will install 20 turbines of 85m high, with turbine propeller of 77m in diameter, 1.5 MW capacity, totalling 89.4 tonnes in weight per turbine. The investment for this phase is 816 billion dong (over 45 million USD). All equipment for this project comes from Germany’s Fuhrlaender Company.

It is expected that once 20 turbines are running, Vietnam will have an additional million KWh per year. This number is not large, but it is meaningful because it marks the birth of the wind power industry in Vietnam.

In the next 10-20 years, when all undergoing power projects, including the 4000MW nuclear power plant in Ninh Thuan, are put into operation, Vietnam will still lack power. Wind power plants have been defined as being an important source of power for Vietnam in the future.

The Fuhrlaender Vietnam Company is about to build the first wind-power turbine manufacturing and installation plant in Tuy Phong district, Binh Thuan province, at a cost of $30 million. This plant will supply wind-power turbines to wind-power plants in Vietnam and for export.

Realising that wind power is clean power, the Vietnamese government has issued some policies to develop this industry. However, to further attract local and foreign investors, experts say that the government should have a comprehensive policy to develop recycled power, including wind-power in Vietnam. With such a policy, Vietnam can fulfill its goal of having wind power accounting for 3-5 percent of total electricity output by 2020.

Tuan Ha