Vietnam News Service reported that Viet Nam needs to fully exploit renewable energy sources to cope with the increasing number of power shortages and maintain sustainable development of the country's natural resources.
According to the Ministry of Industry & Trade, the country's power consumption is five times higher than that of the 1990 to 2004 period, with a surge of about 11.7% per year. Many kinds of fossil fuel used to generate electricity like coal and oil have been exhausted.
Clean renewable energy uses sun, wind, water and geothermal sources. However, Viet Nam faces serious problems in developing a renewable energy industry, including the lack of advanced technologies. The high costs of such technology and equipment as well as production costs are stifling progress in the renewable energy industry.
According to Mr To Quoc Tru director of the Viet Nam Power Consultancy Centre, more financial support and incentives are needed from the Government to attract investors. He said that Viet Nam needed to apply technologies to use waste from the cattle and poultry industry to produce biogas.
Mr Hai said that Viet Nam has an abundant source of renewable energy sources, which could mitigate the impact on the natural environment. Each year, the country has about 2,000 to 2,500 hours of sunlight, equivalent to 43.9 million tonnes of oil per year.
Wind energy could reach a capacity of about 800 to 1,400 kwh per square meter per year in the Central Highlands, southern and coastal areas. Another 500 kwh per square meter per year could be produced in other areas from other sources of renewable energy.
