Wind energy in Vietnam Wind energy in Viet Nam Should we invest money in Wind Energy Projects in Viet Nam? Huu Dinh Xuan English Composition Instructor: Ms Hoang T Ngoc Diep Hai Phong, December 22, 2013 Wind energy in Vietnam Wind energy in Viet Nam Should we invest money in wind energy projects in Viet Nam? In the first decade of 21th century, deficit of energy and environment pollution are menacing to unshakeable development of our house- Earth In the past, water power was generally recognized as safe for environment, but now they are destroying ecological balance Therefore, we need to use renewable energies, special is wind energy that is the best way for expanding power and ensuring energy security for each country In the early of 2010s, Viet Nam government focus on investing in wind energy projects, a step in the right direction, when Viet Nam is developing, and energy needs are increasing day by day The following content is a research paper about wind energy: definition, how it works, as well as potential, production, and plan of wind energy in Viet Nam Therefore, we can answer the question: Should we invest money in Wind energy projects in Viet Nam? What is wind energy? How does it work? According to German Wind Energy Institute (2003): “Wind energy is kinetic energy of moving air in earth’s atmosphere Wind energy is an indirect form of solar energy From Antiquity period, human have known to using wind energy” Because of the unequal influence of solar heat into atmosphere, pressure of areas are different Therefore there is an air motion from the area where has high pressure to area where has low pressure This motion is called wind We have known that wind’s motion create a mechanical force and it is a “surface” force So, inside ò wind exits a mechanical energy In the old days, human knew using wind’s forces in Wind energy in Vietnam their life (windmill; sailboat…), but there are some simple application Nowadays, wind was researched and commodious applied, wind energy changed into electrical energy In the world, Netherland is the first country, which applied wind energy on their production activities, and be famous by windmills From the energy crisis in 1970s, renewable energy was focus on again In 1980s, wind farms was designed and built Wind energy made fast progress in 30 years In Viet Nam, the definition of wind energy is new with Vietnamese people, and in 10 years ago, it started to be known In 10 years, what did we to take full advantages of wind energy? According to GIZ’s report (2013): The Government of Vietnam has given more attention to wind power development to compensate part of electricity shortage Currently, there are 42 wind power projects ranging from MW to 150 MW at different development stage However, there is only one project has been put into the national grid, which is the project of Vietnamese Renewable Energy Joint Stock Company (REVN) in Binh Thuan Province 20 wind turbines of 1.5MW per turbine with German technology of REVN’s project have been completely installed and connected to the national grid system in March 2011 This is reasonable, because Viet Nam is a developing country, wind energy projects sometimes still be limited We should use wind energy to replace fossil energy because of many reasons Wind discharge no exhaust fumes, no poisonous chemicals and still exits with time Today, gas’s price is increasing higher day by day, make price of all things increasing too Maybe it is the main reason of economical panics When we use wind energy, we can peg the energy market; and contribute in diversification of energy If Viet Nam successfully apply wind energy projects, we can limit the dependent of outside fuel Electrical needs of Viet Nam economy averagely increase by 13% per year, and in recent years, this rate is higher than usual When wind projects Wind energy in Vietnam complete, we can provide enough energy for all And the other reason, which is very important in the world, is not cause the greenhouse effect Now, we talk about production of wind energy German Wind Energy Institute’s article said that: “Wind turbines work base on a very simple principle Wind’s kinetic energy spin turbine propellers, which always spin around Rotor When each rotor spin, each rotor was connected with main pivot, electric is created by dynamo Wind turbines is placed at a height of 30m above ground for they can obtained all wind The electric, which was made by wind turbines, can supply for a residential area, or move in national electrical network” Also located in the article mentioned above, in Viet Nam, wind turbines have been researched and applied from early 1980s There are many agencies, organizations take part in this research, and install preview, such as: Energy Institute, Ministry of Communications and Transport, New Energy Research Centers of Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh Polytechnic College Almost all agencies research and test small-capacity wind turbines, and focus on inshore area from Da Nang to South In fact, in Ninh Thuan, we successful fit up a small Electric generator use wind energy All things aforementioned show that, Viet Nam strongly want to develop wind energy projects, because their advantages can improve our economy Viet Nam is a country in tropical zone, with long seashore So Viet Nam has main advantage to develop wind energy In World Bank (WB)’s report, WB specific researched about wind energy in South-east Asian, including Viet Nam: Viet Nam is the most potential in Wind energy, than neighbouring countries, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia Namely, “Vietnam has 8.6% territory area good or very good for build wind energy projects, but in Cambodia is 0.2%; Laos is 2.9%, and 0.2% in Thailand” (WB- 2001) Total wind energy potential in Vietnam is about 512,360 MW, which is more than 200 times of Sơn La hydroelectric power plant’s Wind energy in Vietnam capacity Of course, changing theoretical potential to exploitable potential is a long story In the same WB’s report, on Vietnam territory, main areas, where have the most potential for developing wind energy, are Sơn Hải ( Ninh Thuận) and sand-hill area at height 60-100m from Hàm Tiến to Mũi Né ( Bình Thuận) In these areas, not only wind has high average speed, but also there are a little storm “In wind seasons, there are 98% of south-east and South wind have average speed about 6-7m/s, that is say we can build wind power stations with capacity 3-3.5 MW”- WB (2001) Nowadays, there are so many wind energy projects are working or under construction in Viet Nam A wind electrical project with capacity 50MW in electrical plant Phuong Mai ( Bình Định) is invested for supplying to Nhơn Hội economic zone Total original capital is about 65 million USD Or the wind project of GRETA ENERGY company, from Canada, has capital is 1200 billion VND This project are preparing to set to work at Khanh Hoa KV VENTI Company from Czech has invested in 12 wind energy projects in Viet Nam, with total capacity is about 1,000 MW According to WB’s research, Viet Nam is the most potential in South-east Asian zone, and total output capacity is very high But to set up a wind turbine (about 2-3 MW), we need to pay million USD, and complete in year There are many other projects That said that Vietnam government is creating good conditions for development of wind energy How does Vietnam government pay attentions to wind energy projects? We can see that though the decisions Vietnam government has many decisions to promote investing, developing wind projects According to Development Renewable Energy Committee (2013): Decision No 50/2011/QD-TTg stipulating functions, tasks, powers and organizational structure of the General Department of Energy directly under the Ministry of Industry The Government also sets the targets for wind power development the Decision No 1208/QĐ-TTg Wind energy in Vietnam on July 21, 2011 by the Government on development plan of national electricity in the period 2011-2020 and outlook 2030 (Master Plan VII) at about 1,000 MW (equivalent to 0.7% of the total electricity capacity) by 2020 and about 6,200 MW (2.4%) by 2030 In other hand, VN government not only makes good conditions for oversea capacity, but also price support by supporting buying policy: Circular 05/2009/TT-BCT about Regulation of Electricity Price and implementing instructions Therefore, development of wind energy projects was a target of VN What potential of VN wind energy projects development? Characteristics of the distribution of wind energy on the territory or Wind speed is circulation of atmosphere and terrain (Prof Nguyen- 2013) Wind speed is dependent on the terrain, the more the climb, wind blew strong In the mountains, in the slopes often catch the wind, wind has strong speed In contrast, the other side would be completely sheltered In the mountains the bow, especially in the mountains of Northeastern VIETNAM, wind direction and wind speed There are also offshore wind, and diminishing when on land However the wind at sea also depends on the characteristics of land on the side of the coast In the South, near the equator, the wind speed dropped markedly compared with the Eastern Islands Under the specifications and characteristics of VN climate, influenced by main wind seasons: Northeast and Southwest winds, the region has large wind speeds, for wind energy development diverge markedly For example: the region has the potential of wind energy in higher cold season hot season: the region has the potential of wind energy in higher cold season hot season According to the Prof Le's report (2010) on reserves of wind and wind power output in Vietnam: Vietnam is the country with the biggest potential in the area of wind capacity Wind power output can reach 513.360 MW, and could be folded times this figure by 2020 The WB Wind energy in Vietnam also pointed out that, up to 8.6% of the territory of VIETNAM with wind speed reaching high and very high, very good to be able to put the wind turbines here Including the mountains of the West and the coastal mountains of Thua Thien Hue, with an average wind speed of > m/s, East of the range, from a height of 800-1200 m, the wind speed reaches 8.5-9.5 m/s in addition, Ninh Thuan, the coastal plain North of Hue, Mui Chan May, at a height of 30 m, with wind speed reaching 5.5-6.0 m/s that shows the potential development of the turbine size reminder and at Hue is very feasible Should we invest money to wind energy projects in Viet Nam? Wind energy projects in Viet Nam have advantages and disadvantages We have some disadvantages, such as: this energy must compete with common energies in a base price If it in where has a low speed wind, it is too difficult So that required the original capacity is very high, but VN still is a developing country and depends on foreign countries investment Secondly, wind energy is inconstant, and it cannot be stored Wind energy not cause environmental pollution, however, it creates a large noise affecting residential, mobile networks, and sometimes birds is killed whenever caught up in the propeller In the words of Mr Werner Kossman (2013), we are getting troubles such as: low price of power, have no return invest funds… and so on, which need more and more help from government Ms Nguyen claims that VN are in a bad economic context, bad debt… so too hard to invest in a power energy, which really is effective, and we lack consensus of electricity companies in investing renewable power projects In short, we need to learn experiences from the countries preceded (2012) These are a some disadvantages, wind energy also have so many advantages Wind energy is a clear source, it is not cause of environment pollution like the other sources, such as Wind energy in Vietnam thermo-electric use gas or coal and discard polluted air Next, we can make wind energy everywhere on our territory It is abundant Another advantage is wind energy is a renewable energy, with low price, because it depend on wind source, capital resources… And the last, turbines can be built on the farms In countryside, farmers still work near the windmill, then they can earn compensations by using this electric In Viet Nam, there are so many good conditions for development of wind energy As Prof Le noted: “Vietnam is a rich wind country, with the growth rate of wind energy is the fastest, 28% in 10 years” Can see that the disadvantage that we can completely be avoided Should make use of all the advantages of wind energy for the development of Vietnam Only when Vietnam can develop wind energy projects are successful, then we will step into the new era of the development period In brief, we totally should invest money in wind energy projects in Viet Nam, because it has benefits, which needed for Vietnam’s development Before the growing demand for electricity, wind power's competitiveness around the world is increasingly improving, Viet Nam completely may soon implement a national program on wind power to provide electricity for many populations, and contribute to reducing the imbalance between supply and demand on the electricity The trend in Vietnam's energy balance is “supply” be smaller than “demand” Vietnam ranks 15th largest country in the world, but in terms of sources of non-renewable, fossil energy (oil, gas, coal), we just standing on the median line of the world, according to WB Therefore, the development of renewable energy sources, especially wind power, increasingly big role in energy balance and have important implications for energy security of Viet Nam Wind energy in Vietnam References Do, T., M (2013) Promoted research for development of wind energy From http://www.erav.vn German Wind Energy Institute, (2003) Wind Energy Wind energy, p A1 Giz Renewable energy project (2013) Overview of wind energy in Viet Nam Giz’s reports, p.34 Government Offices, (2013), Development Renewable energy Regulatory Framework on Wind Energy Projects, p.3 Le, N (2011) Developing wind energy- a potential future way From http://www.tietkiemnangluong.vn Nguyen.D.V (2012) The difficulty and the lesson we learned From http://www.evnspc.vn Prof Dr Le, D., L (2011) Viet Nam’s wind energy: What did we not do? From: http://www.nangluongio.com Prof Nguyen.P.B (2013) Potential, Production process, planning of wind energy on the world and in Viet Nam P.8-9-10 Werner.K (2013) Development renewable energy: need government’s helps From: http://www.thoibaonganhang.vn .. .Wind energy in Vietnam Wind energy in Viet Nam Should we invest money in wind energy projects in Viet Nam? In the first decade of 21th century, deficit of energy and environment... of wind energy in Viet Nam Therefore, we can answer the question: Should we invest money in Wind energy projects in Viet Nam? What is wind energy? How does it work? According to German Wind Energy. .. development of wind energy From http://www.erav.vn German Wind Energy Institute, (2003) Wind Energy Wind energy, p A1 Giz Renewable energy project (2013) Overview of wind energy in Viet Nam Giz’s