Commenting about the draft proposal on rooftop solar power, the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) said the draft compiled by MOIT doesn’t offer attractive incentives to encourage investment in rooftop solar power, but the government wants to develop this type of power.

MPI said MOIT and the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (MONRE) need to design detailed programs to encourage people to set up rooftop solar power systems in their homes. 

Vietnam aims to have rooftop power systems on 50 percent of office buildings and 50 percent of people’s homes by 2030. These works will not connect to the national grid, but will operate under home production and consumption.

MPI suggested solutions on providing preferential loans, exempting or reducing taxes and fees, and exempting electricity operation licenses in an effort to simplify procedures to create favorable conditions to install rooftop solar power systems. 

Meanwhile, MOIT doesn’t agree. In its latest report to the Prime Minister about rooftop solar power, the ministry stressed that this is about household use, not for sales to other institutions and individuals.

The institutions and individuals investing in and using rooftop solar power implement the taxes and fees, and charge incentive policies, in accordance with current laws on taxes, fees and charges.

The institutions and individuals installing and using rooftop solar power must ensure the efficiency of the work and meet requirements on electricity safety, construction work safety, and environmental and fire prevention and control as stipulated in current regulations.

MOIT has collected opinions from 15 ministries and ministerial agencies which all want to expand the sphere of rooftop solar power installation.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha stressed that the subjects are works installed at homes and office buildings. The expansion of subjects as recommended by the ministries will be considered in other documents.

According to MOIT, under the eighth national electricity development plan (Plan 8), the total capacity of rooftop solar power capacity would increase by 2,600MW. With this scale, there is no need to set up a mechanism to encourage rooftop solar power installation.

If just 12.5 percent of households installed power works (1 kw for each household) in 2023, this would be enough to reach the target set for the development period (2021-2030) outlined in Plan 8.

Manh Ha