Page 14 - AsiaElec Week 29 2021

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will continue as joint majority owners of Vietnam is facing a crucial crossroads and its benefits will require more than auctions
the project, and lead the construction phase has the opportunity to act now to accelerate on their own – but they could be a piece
towards commercial operations in 2024. deployment of offshore wind in this decade. of the puzzle,” said Michael Stephenson,
The two companies said the new The report, “Vietnam’s Future Transition Associate Director at The Renewables
partnership on CFXD contributes to to Offshore Wind Auctions – International Consulting Group. “We have seen countries
Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy, its regional Best Practices and Lessons Learned,” draws learn how to integrate auctions into offshore
strategy for Asia, by enhancing cooperation from global case studies and makes concrete wind policy in different ways and the key
on renewable energy between Taiwan and recommendations to enhance the long-term conclusions and case studies from our analysis
Thailand. growth and sustainability of offshore wind in are presented in this report. Overall, a more
Located 13-15 kilometres off the coast Vietnam. coordinated approach is critical, considering
of Changhua County in Taiwan, the CFXD With world-class resource potential and the interaction of auction policy with other
project reached financial close in February rapidly growing power demand, Vietnam is factors such as investor confidence and supply
2020, through a combination of equity poised to be South East Asia’s offshore wind chain maturity, as well as ensuring a suitable
and senior loans from a consortium of 25 leader over the next decade. But true large- transition period is put in place to move to a
international and Taiwanese banks and scale offshore wind projects are not due to be new mechanism.”
financial institutions as well as six export connected until 2026 at least, and a number “Global experience yields valuable
credit agencies. of policy and regulatory challenges need to recommendations for Vietnam’s nascent
The public-private partnership regime be addressed to safeguard the pipeline of offshore wind sector, especially at this
under which the contract was awarded is investment and project development. crossroads where the country’s energy system
steadily increasing Taiwanese content. Local Among these are the expiration of the decisions will make the difference between
suppliers and partners on CFXD include current intertidal Feed-in Tariff by November a clean energy future and locking in carbon-
Century Iron & Steel Industrial Company 2021, and the current 2 GW by 2030 offshore intensive generation,” said Joyce Lee, GWEC
Limited, TECO, Hung Hua Construction wind target in the draft Power Development Head of Policy and Projects. “The new report
and CTCI. The project has a 20-year power Plan 8 master energy strategy – which, the puts forth several concrete recommendations
purchase agreement with state-owned Taiwan report finds, could be raised to 10 GW by around the timing and transition from
Power Company. 2030 to maximise social, economic and an offshore wind Feed-in Tariff, planning
CIP is a fund management company environmental gains from offshore wind. The frameworks, auction design and more.
focused on energy infrastructure including PDP8 is due to be approved and finalised later Proactive efforts and cooperation in each area
offshore wind, onshore wind, solar this year. could support a larger and more sustainable
PV, biomass and energy-from-waste, “GWEC is calling on the Vietnamese pipeline of projects to 2030.”
transmission, distribution and storage. It government to urgently adopt a transition The report recommends a transition period
manages eight funds and has approximately stage for offshore wind, and incorporate a over the next few years, wherein an offshore
€16bn ($18.8bn) under management. systematic and open consultation process on wind Feed-in Tariff is established to apply
Today, CIP’s funds have approximately 100 future procurement and auction design,” said to the first 4-5 GW of projects in Vietnam,
international institutional investors from Liming Qiao, GWEC Head of Asia. “With less concurrent to the government undertaking
the Nordics, continental Europe, the United than 10 years to meet PDP8 targets for 2030, technical studies on auction design. Auctions
Kingdom, Israel, Asia, Australia, and North the time is now to begin wider consultation could be introduced as soon as 2024 under
America, plus multilateral organisations such and consider raising ambitions to 10 GW this transition model.
as the European Investment Bank. by 2030. We hope this report will support GWEC
GPSC is expanding internationally, and Vietnam in this vital period of making
recently acquired a 41.6% share in Indian offshore wind a pillar of the future energy
solar power developer Avaada Energy Private mix.”
Limited for 14.82bn baht ($449mn). “The policy solution for Vietnam to
The Indian government has a target accelerate offshore wind growth and maximise
of 450GW of installed renewable power
generation capacity by 2030. PTT itself has a
target of 8GW by 2030.

WIND
Offshore wind in Vietnam

at a crossroads: Policy

clarity needed for the next
transition phase

A new report released today by the Global
Wind Energy Council, in cooperation with
The Renewables Consulting Group, finds that

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 29 21•July•2021