Vietnam Considers Wind Power

While Vietnam is a rising exporter of hydrocarbons, government authorities are increasingly interested in increasingly the country's investments in renewable power sources.
 
According to World Bank research, 8.6 percent of Vietnam's territory has wind power development potential, with the areas with the greatest possibilities for development being Son Hai in central Ninh Thuan province, and Ham Tien and Mui Ne in central Binh Thuan province, largely shield as they are from the massive Pacific typhoons that regularly lash the Vietnamese coastline, as well as having relatively consistent wind speeds, Vietnam Plus news agency reported.
 
According to Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade's Energy Department, the country now actively has 42 wind power projects in operation, mainly in 12 provinces in the country's central and southeastern regions, with a total installed capacity of 3,906 megawatts.
 
While currently meeting a minor percentage of the country's energy needs, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung recently issued directives to assist wind power projects that will become operational next month, exempting wind power projects from import tariffs of foreign-made materials for production and enjoy land lease reductions, while wind power projects connecting to the national grid will in addition be eligible for government subsidies.
 
The government's overall strategy is to minimize national use of traditional fossil fuels in order to preserve as much as the country's rising hydrocarbon output for export to earn badly-needed foreign currency.
 
By. Joao Peixe, Deputy Editor OilPrice.com