Vietnam’s largest wind power plant enters operation

HCMC-based energy firm Trungnam Group Friday has put its wind power plant in central Ninh Thuan Province into operation, considered the country’s largest to date.

The plant, which spreads over an area of 900 hectares in Thuan Bac District, has 45 turbines with a total capacity of 151.95 megawatts that costs VND4 trillion ($173.4 million), the Government portal reported.

The wind power plant is combined with a 204 MW solar power plant to form the solar-wind farm complex considered the largest in Southeast Asia. The complex will supply a total 950 million kWh per year for the country’s grid.

The private energy company has added a total 1,064 MW to the national grid comprising hydropower, solar and wind power. It plans to have a renewable output of nearly 10,000 MW by 2027.

Tran Quoc Nam, chairman of Ninh Thuan, said the province is now taking the lead with 32 solar power projects with a total capacity of 2,257 MW, and three wind power projects with an accumulative capacity of 329 MW.

Vietnam has great potential for renewable energy with its long coastline and 2,700 hours of sunshine a year on average.

Solar power currently accounts for just 0.01 percent of the country’s total power output, but the government plans to increase the ratio to 3.3 percent by 2030 and 20 percent by 2050.

Vietnam aims to produce 10.7 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030, mainly through solar and wind power projects.