Context
Viet Nam is one of the fastest-growing countries in Asia. A consequence of its rapid growth is the need to draw on new sources of energy. In line with its current Power Development Plan, Viet Nam aims to triple its installed power generation capacity from the current level of around 30 gigawatts (GW) to 75 GW by 2020. The Government of Viet Nam is planning to expand its thermal power stations and to scale up grid-connected electricity generation from wind energy. The aim is to increase installed capacity from its present level of 50 megawatts (MW) to 1 GW in 2020 and 6.2 GW in 2030. This is also supposed to diversify the country’s power supply and make it sustainable as part of the Viet Nam Green Growth Strategy.
Viet Nam is considered to be the country with the best wind supply in South-East Asia. In order to harness this potential, in 2011 Viet Nam introduced legislation on feeding wind energy into the national grid, and now intends to revise this legislation from a market-oriented perspective. There is considerable interest in wind energy in the country, but scaling up wind power requires a favourable investment environment. This requires that project developers, investors and financiers as well as political decision-makers and public administration have an understanding of the specific characteristics of wind power in its technical, commercial and socio-economic aspects. A further important factor is the availability of skilled personnel to carry out the scaling up activities and manage operational aspects. The scaling up objectives cannot be achieved in the present situation, as neither institutions nor investors are in a position to stimulate the wind energy market or to plan wind energy projects and implement them in an economically viable manner.
Objective
Qualified institutions and investors have improved the upstream conditions needed for planning and implementing wind energy projects.
Approach
The programme is centred on three primary fields of activity:
Improving planning capacity as well as the legal and regulatory environment for utilising wind energy
Increasing the sector-specific and methodological expertise of public and private actors involved in project development
Providing support for technological cooperation initiatives involving the private sector and training and scientific institutions in Viet Nam and Germany
The aim of improving the legal and regulatory environment, and increasing the performance and expertise in private and state actors is to accelerate the process of scaling up wind energy. Establishing and enhancing vocational and academic training courses will create an environment in which specialised knowledge on wind energy can be provided sustainably within the country. At the same time, the economy’s need for suitably trained personnel will be satisfied. Cooperation initiatives in technology and research will support this process and additionally open up possibilities for a higher degree of national value creation in the wind energy sector. This, in turn, will contribute in various ways to the Viet Nam Green Growth Strategy.
The programme’s core objective is to do with climate change mitigation, specifically through the reduction of greenhouse gases. The technical cooperation will support the scaling up of wind energy in Viet Nam and thus provide an alternative to the use of coal and gas in generating electricity. The basis for public and private investments in wind energy projects will be improved, thereby creating the necessary conditions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions through the construction of wind power plants.
The use of wind power plants as substitutes for the generation of electricity from fossil-fuel power stations will also reduce other emissions harmful to the environment and to health, in particular sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulates. The programme will thus make a contribution to protecting and improving the environment.