A rapid rise in Vietnam’s solar power has been boosted by Chinese finance and technology, but more support is still going to fossil fuels
Solar energy in Vietnam has grown rapidly since 2018, supported by Chinese finance and technology (Image: Alamy)
June 30, 2021
Vietnam has been a Southeast Asia solar success story. It went from having barely any generation in 2018 to a quarter of its total installed capacity being solar – a 100-fold increase in two years.
This rapid growth is mainly down to the Vietnamese government’s feed-in tariff which provides a guaranteed above-market price for renewable energy producers; other incentives signed off in 2017 in an attempt to pivot away from lagging fossil fuel projects; and cheaper solar panels, some of which are assembled domestically.
Around 99% of the installed solar panels in Vietnam come from China. At the same time, China is one of the few countries that still lends Vietnam money to build coal plants.
China’s future role in Vietnam’s power system will be shaped by the latter’s newest plan for its power sector. The final version of the Power Development Plan 8 is due to be published in June, though it has been postponed before and may be again.
Workers fix electric cables in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by VnExpress/Thanh Nguyen.Vietnam Electricity, the country’ sole power distributor, has signed up three contractors for building a 1,200-MW thermal power plant at a construction cost of $1.3 billion.
CVD 
