Solar energy Vietnam: grid integration challenges and opportunities

Thursday, April 11, 2019

The workshop “Solar energy Vietnam: grid integration challenges and opportunities” was jointly organized by National University of Civil Engineering (NUCE) -Vietnam and KU Leuven -Belgium with the support of the Embassy of Belgium in Hanoi which intends to present and discuss the state-of-the–art and state-of-the-practice in solar harvesting and storage technologies, the grid integration challenges and the related socio-economic aspects in Vietnam and Belgium. This event facilitated the exchange of ideas and solutions, along a broad range of disciplines related to solar energy production, transport, storage and use, and among many different types of stakeholders, from end-users in rural areas, PV-installers, researchers to local governments, businesses and grid operators. Academic and industrial solar energy experts from both countries presented their view on these issues and shared with the audience the best practices and exchanged ideas on how cope with the presented challenges and maximize the current opportunities. Mr Philippe Vermulen – representative of Avalon Landscape + Engineering also was on stage to give the speech “Creating decentralised power distribution an organically grown grid infrastructure in rural Senegal” where has same economic – social conditions to Vietnam.
Nowadays, the rising concerns about the environment and livelihoods are setting barriers to developing solar energy in Vietnam, experts have said.
Solar energy harvesting, especially through the Photovoltaic system, has witnessed a boom in recent years.
The Government’s decision No 11 released in 2017 has created good  
conditions to accelerate the industry.
Since then, Vietnam has attracted 20GW of large-scale developments, which makes the country the regional leader in solar energy.
Vietnam is standing in front of unprecedented opportunities to develop solar energy with 242 solar energy projects have been registered. Some 100 projects are at the stage of closing deals with Vietnam Electricity (EVN) and 50 are due to come into operations while the cost for solar panels and accessories has fallen. 
However, new projects are causing concerns over grid overloading and suboptimal operation of PV installation.
At the conferences, participants touched upon innovations in solar harvesting and storage technologies which offer integrated solutions for also food production, cultivation and sustainable development.
Vietnam’s annual power consumption has increased by 10 percent in recent years, putting the country at risk of power shortages in the future. This is the reason why enewable energy like solar and wind would play an essential role in helping Vietnam complete its long-term goal of connecting the whole country to the national grid. 
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