The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) has sent a document to Enterprize Energy, replying to a proposal on the trial development of an offshore wind power project, Thang Long Wind/Thang Long Wind 2, initiated by the British company Enterprize Energy.

MOIT confirmed that it had received the document from the Government Office on the Thang Long Wind/Thang Long Wind 2 project, to be on a trial basis.

According to the ministry, no regulation on piloting offshore wind power projects has been issued by competent authorities, so there is "no legal basis for the ministry to handle the proposal from Enterprize Energy Group".

MOIT also cited the Government Office’s Document No 4286/VPCP-CN dated June 10, 2023 on the eighth national power development plan (Plan 8) as saying that the PM requests to “consider assigning the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) and domestic capable enterprises to pilot offshore wind power projects as per the conclusion of the Standing Government shown in Notice No 64/TB-VPCP dated May 1, 2023”.

Deputy PM Tran Hong Ha, closing the meeting held on September 8, directed competent agencies to implement the Standing Committee and PM’s decision on assigning EVN and domestic enterprises to develop offshore wind power projects on a trial basis.

Under Plan 8, Vietnam would have 6,000MW of offshore wind power by 2030.

Thang Long Wind project, 3,400 MW in capacity, has the expected investment capital of $11.9 billion. The other name of the project is Ke Ga Offshore Wind Power project, initiated by an energy complex led by Enterprize Energy Group.

Vietnam has great potential for developing offshore wind power with an estimated total capacity of 600 GW, including 260 GW of fixed-bottom and 338 GW of floating platforms.

As of the end of 2021, the power capacity from renewable energy had accounted for 21 percent of the total installation capacity of the entire system.

However, the development of offshore wind power in Vietnam is still at the beginning stage, and facing many difficulties related to the legal framework, database, infrastructure, human resources, investment capital and assessments about possible impact on society and the environment.

On August 29, in Hanoi, within the framework of the conference on promoting Vietnam-Singapore cooperation investment projects, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment of Vietnam granted PTSC (Petrovietnam Technical Services Corporation) to carry out monitoring, investigating, surveying and assessing maritime resources (license for fieldwork). 

At the same time, Sembcorp Utilities Pte Ltd (Sembcorp), a partner of PTSC, was granted a Letter of Intension by the Singaporean Ministry of Trade and Industry, approving the project.

Luong Bang