According to media reports, Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) has approved state-owned Vietnam Electricity (EVN)’s proposal to continue buying power from rooftop solar projects.
In May 2019, EVN announced that it will purchase excess power generated by rooftop solar panels at 9.35 US cents per kWh, in an effort to encourage the development of rooftop solar power. The sellers could be private households and organizations who are buying electricity directly from EVN. EVN is responsible for connecting rooftop solar power to the national electricity grid without causing overload.
There are four models of rooftop solar power projects in the country: 1) household power consumption, in which a portion of the power will be consumed by the investors and the remainder will be sold to EVN; 2) the intermediary power sale and purchase, in which a portion of the power will be sold by other individuals and organizations and the remainder will be sold to EVN; 3) the whole power sale business, in which all generated power will be sold to EVN; 4) direct power sale and purchase in which all generated power will be sold to other organizations and individuals instead of EVN.
EVN is hoping that its efforts will boost the country’s total rooftop solar power capacity to around 2,000 MW by the end of 2020 from 350 MW, as of mid-2019.
Starting from mid-2017, Vietnam has promoted the development of solar power with a feed-in-tariff (FIT) of 9.35 US cents/kWh. In September 2019, MOIT submitted its draft decision on incentives for solar power investors to the prime minister. The draft document included two substantial incentives namely new FIT and detailed regulations on rooftop solar power projects.
(Source: Hanoi Times)
