The farms, one in the
central region and the other in the south, will have a combined capacity of 940
MW.
Companies from Vietnam,
Ireland and the U.S. on Monday signed cooperation agreements to build two wind farms in Vietnam worth
$2.2 billion.
Part of a wind farm in
the Tuy Phong District of Binh Thuan Province. Photo courtesy of Nguoi Lao dong
news site
The pacts are part of
various deals reached by Vietnam and Ireland during the visit to Vietnam by
President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins from November 5-14.
Vietnam’s Phu Cuong
Corporation will join hands with Ireland’s Mainstream Renewable Power Ltd. and
the U.S. giant General Electric to set up an 800-megawatt wind farm in the
southern province of Soc Trang. The project will need $2 billion.
In the second project,
Vietnam’s Pacific Corporation will cooperate with Mainstream Renewable Power
Ltd. to build another 140-MW wind farm in the central province of Binh Thuan,
which is worth $200 million for construction.
The same day Vietnam and
Ireland also signed other agreements on poverty reduction, education and
training, information and communications.
Vietnam has recently
revised down the target for electricity generation by coal-fired thermal power
plants from 56.4 percent of the total electricity generation to 53.2 percent by
2030.
The country is more
focused on renewable energy, particularly solar and wind energy, targeting a renewable energy ratio
of 10.7 percent by 2030.
But that will require a
lot of investment in the coming years. Wind and solar power capacity
is estimated to account for only 0.8 percent and 0.5 percent of total
electricity generation respectively by 2020.
With over 3,000 km of
coastline and numerous islands, Vietnam has more wind power potential than
most of other Southeast Asian nations with a total estimated capacity of 24,000
MW, the Vietnam News Agency has reported.
Source: Bao Vnexpress
