VietNamNet Bridge – HCM City’s authorities are considering cooperating with Russian partners to develop wind power using a new technology which is expected to have the production cost lower by 50 percent compared to the current popularized technologies, and to replace hydropower plants.

The information was released at the working session between the HCM City People’s Committee and relevant agencies on August 23, discussing the clean energy development.

It is expected that the pilot project would be carried out in Can Gio district which includes two wind power units, capitalized at 60 billion dong. Phan Minh Tan, Director of the HCM City Science and Technology Department, said that the wind speed in Can Gio district is 6-7m/s, in accordance with the wind speed map. The speed is lower than that in Binh Thuan province, but it is completely possible to apply the new technology in Can Gio district.

The information that the HCM City authorities have decided to use a Russian technology – “YnS-V” – for the wind power project may surprise many people, because the new technology, developed by Russian scientists, has never been utilized in the world, including Russia.

The science technology department still believes that the new technology is more preeminent than the current wind power technologies, after considering the experiments and research works conducted by Russian scientists in the last many years, and comparing the new technology with the currently used technologies.

According to Tan, YnS-V has been granted a patent and it is believed to have many outstanding features. YnS-V follows the effective technology procedure now used in manufacturing helicopter propellers, which allows to operate more flexibly in the air and to take full advantage of the wind energy. The power generation units will be able to run even in the conditions of weak wind. Also, YnS-V machines are really lighter than other machines.

The big shortcoming of most of the current power generation machines, is that they create infrasound which badly affects human nerves. This explains why birds and bats cannot live in the areas where there are wind power plants. Meanwhile, the experiments all show that YnS-V will not create the sound.

The research has pointed out that with the current typical generator powered by wind; the average annual energy consumption is 2.5 million kwh (with the wind speed of 4.8m/s) on the earth. Meanwhile, the figure is nearly 5 million kwh for YnV-S.

The production cost of YnS-V plants is believed to be cheaper by 50 percent in comparison with the current wind power production cost. It will take only four years to recover the investment capital if using YnV-S, while if using the currently popular technologies, the time needed would be 10 years.

It is also cheaper to build YnS-Y power plants than hydropower plants. It is estimated that the investment rate for hydropower plants is 2.2 dollars per watt, while the rate for YnS-Y power plant is just 1.5 dollars. Meanwhile, unlike hydropower plants, wind power plants do not destroy the environment, ecosystem and do not caused flood or drought.

When asked if the HCM City can prepare well enough in terms of the labor force to “Vietnamize” the foreign technology, Tan affirmed that this is within reach. The HCM City Science and Technology Department and the HCM City Power Company will join forces to implement the pilot project with the support of Russian scientists.

In the initial stage of the project, main equipment must be imported from Russia, because they cannot be manufactured in Vietnam, including the engine. After that, the Russian side will gradually transfer the technology to Vietnam. If equipment can be manufactured in Vietnam, the production costs of wind power plants would be even cheaper than the estimates.

Tan has affirmed that if HCM City utilizes the technology, it will gain big achievements in developing power using clean technologies. The city hopes to master the source technology just after 1.5 years more, if the project can be implemented on schedule. If so, HCM City will be not only the big electricity consumer, but also the big electricity producer, which can provide electricity to other localities.

Source: SGTT