Vietnam - Ninh Thuan wind farm to get official nod

A wind power plant in the central province of Ninh Thuan will be officially approved by the Vietnamese government this year.

The state owned power utility, Electricity of Vietnam, has been tasked with preparing a plan for the wind power project that will be submitted to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung by May, a government statement said Tuesday.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment has said it plans to use aid from Denmark to fund the wind farm. Two new wind power plants to produce 74 megawatts will be constructed in Binh Thuan Province by year-end, raising the number of renewable energy projects in the province to three wind farms.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, 8.6 percent of the country’s land area has good potential to develop wind power projects, but it has been left untapped so far.

The only wind farm in Vietnam is located in the central province of Binh Thuan. The 30 megawatt wind power plant worth US$60 million was built by the Hanoi-based Vietnam Renewable Energy Joint Stock Company.

Le Tuan Phong, deputy general director of the ministry’s Energy Department, said several foreign investors have planned to build wind power plants in Vietnam with capacities of between 6 and 150 megawatts.

A recent World Bank study found Vietnam could produce more than 500 gigawatts of electricity from land-based and off-shore wind farms, 10 times the country's expected national demand in 2020.

Fuhrländer of Germany is to build a US$25m wind turbine factory in central Vietnam to supply wind energy projects in the Southeast Asian country and overseas.

The new manufacturing plant will be located in the coastal province of Binh Dinh and will represent Vietnam's first wind turbine factory.

The factory will initially produce 1.5 MW wind turbines, before adding 2.5MW models to the production line. Fuhrländer has wind turbine plants in Germany, the US and Brazil.

The German company has teamed up with Vietnam Windpower Joint Stock Co to deliver the project. Fuhrländer supplied the five wind turbines for Vietnam's first wind farm, located in the central province of Binh Thuan, although all the equipment for the $55 million project was sourced from Germany.

For more information please contact Trevor Sievert at ts@windfair.net