Page 10 - AsiaElec Week 32 2021

AsiaElec RENEWABLES AsiaElec
Pandemic challenges wind power projects in Mekong Delta
VIETNAM
WIND developers in Vietnam are rushing to open wind farms in the Mekong River Delta area ahead of a subsidy deadline in November.
However, many of them may not meet this deadline because of building delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 50-MW Vien An wind farm is well behind schedule, with just half of the 49 planned towers in place, the developer Vien An Energy One said.
There are also land access problems, as many households have not yet agreed to vacate their land as the people claim the compensation price offereed for their land is not high enough.
Also, part of the wind farm is to be built in forest area, and there are zoning problems asso- ciated with changing the land use of the area.
Nguyen Dang Hien, deputy director of legal affairs at Vien An Energy, said that site clearance work was facing many obstacles.
The company wants the local authorities to speed up site clearance, implement legal pro- cedures for land allocation in a timely manner, and help the contractor execute the wind power project on schedule.
In Bac Lieu Province, there are nine wind power projects with a total capacity of 562 MW. Over the last few years, wind power projects
in the area have encountered many difficulties, especially in the transportation of super long and super heavy equipment.
Similarly, in Soc Trang Province, there are also nine wind power projects, with six projects with turbines on land, with a total capacity of 262 MW.
The projects are also facing transport prob- lems, with sea routes proving more convenient than land for the heavy equipment involved.
Developersarealsoexperiencinggridaccess problems. In Ca Mau region, the Southern
Electricity Project Management Board said that the construction of the 220-kV Nam Can trans- former station and the 220-kV Nam Can-Ca Mau 2 transmission line were behind schedule.
Similarly, many other wind power investors in the coastal provinces of the Mekong Delta are also worried that the transmission lines will not be built alongside the wind power plants.
Vietnam has up to 309 GW of onshore and offshore wind potential, according to the World Bank. The country is eager to catch up and to develop renewables in order to lessen its reli- ance on dwindling domestic gas production, imported LNG and coal.
Until the commercial deadline on November 1, the government will pay a preferential elec- tricity price of $0.085 per kWh for onshore wind power projects and $0.098 per kWh for offshore projects.
This deadline is now very tight, and devel- opers say that social distancing and other health measures are slowing down work, and prevent- ing foreign staff from entering the country.
Faced with these obstacles, many investors in wind power projects in the Mekong Delta region are worried about not being able to complete the projects on time.
Renewable capacity in the Asia-Pacific region is set to rise by 60% to 815 GW by 2025, with solar power surpassing wind as the main driver of growth.
Recent analysis from Rystad Energy found that green capacity will grow from 517 GW to 815 GW by 2025, with solar nearly doubling from215GWto382GW.
However, the steepest growth will be shown by offshore wind, which is forecast to jump from 9 GW to 51 GW. Onshore wind’s capacity is also settoclimbfrom266GWto341GW.™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 32 11•August•2021