Solar power grows 28-fold in Vietnam's energy mix

In the first three months, EVN mobilised 2.76 billion kWh of renewable energy, including 2.31 billion kWh of solar power, signifying a 28-fold increase on-year.

The hike in solar power generation was due to the multitude of power projects coming online before the feed-in tariff deadline

According to statistics published by Electricity of Vietnam (EVN), in the first quarter of this year, the group mobilised a total of 57.29 billion kWh of power, up 6.3 per cent on year, including local supply sources and imported power.

The supply of thermal and hydropower both reported declines. Notably hydropower plants generated 8.93 billion kWh while gas provided 9.46 billion kWh, down 30.4 and 15.9 per cent, respectively.

However, the amount of coal power reached 33.91 billion kWh, up 21.3 per cent, and oil-fired thermoelectric power was 1.02 billion kWh, increasing by nearly 1 billion kWh on-year. The total mobilised renewable energy was 2.76 billion kWh, including 2.31 billion kWh of solar power.

The surge in solar power is thanks to dozens of large-scale solar farms coming online before June 30, 2019.

In the first quarter of this year, EVN and power plants generated 31.25 billion kWh, making up 54.54 per cent of the total power. 49.28 billion kWh of this was generated by EVN, up 6.47 per cent on-year.

According to EVN, the plunge in hydropower is due to a decrease in the volume of water available for hydropower generation across the countries, especially in large lakes namely Hoa Binh, Son La and Lai Chau.

Notably, the total amount of water in hydropower lakes in March was enough to generate 1.51 billion kWh, 561 million kWh lower than the expectation for the whole year. Meanwhile, the accumulated figure for the three months was 5.11 billion kWh, 2.7 billion kWh lower than the plan. VIR

Ha Vy