VietNamNet Bridge – Only three out of the total 48 registered wind power projects have become operational so far. There has been not the slightest commotion about the others.

In late January 2014, the Ninh Thuan provincial People’s Committee decided to revoke the investment license granted to the Phuoc Huu wind power plant, because the investor has late for four years in implementing the project.

Phuoc Huu is not alone. According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Phuoc Nam Enfinity and Mui Dinh in Ninh Thuan province, and other projects in Binh Thuan and Soc Trang provinces are also in the same situation.

Ly Ngoc Thang from the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Energy Institute, said Phuoc Huu’s executives used the wrong information when making the feasibility study for the project. Later, when measuring the wind power in the projected area, the investor discovered that the conditions were not good enough to set up a wind power plant there. Therefore, they decided to give up.

Investors run away from wind power projects

Vietnam witnessed the “wind power boom” in 2011-2012, when a lot of investors registered to develop wind power projects.

The investors might think that they would have great opportunities when investing in a new energy sector. They might also be encouraged by the Prime Minister’s Decision No 37 on the policies to support wind power projects.

In the decision, the Prime Minister requested the Electricity of Vietnam to buy all the electricity from wind power projects at VND1,614 per kwh, or UScent7.8.

A report of PECC3, a consultancy firm, released at the Gree-Biz conference in September 2013 said that 77 wind power projects in 18 localities had been registered by September 2012. The projects would have the capacity of 7,234 MW in total when they become operational.

Meanwhile, Pham Thuy Dung from the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) said at a workshop in late February 2014 that only 48 projects with the total capacity of 4,876 MW had been registered.

This means 29 wind power with the total capacity of 2,358 MW projects was cut within one year.

When asked about the big difference of 29 projects, Thang said the figure MOIT has is also unreliable, because the ministry can only count the number of registered projects, while it does not have the information about the projects under the implementation.

“The list of the projects provided by MOIT includes the projects registered by the investors who have run away and will not return,” Thang said.

“The local authorities knew about the withdrawal of the investors, but no agency has come forward and gather information for report,” he added. “I think only about 30 projects are still… alive.”

And of the 30 projects Thang mentioned, only three have completed and become operational.

When asked why a lot of investors have run away from the registered projects, Thang said the investors just “followed the crowd” when registering wind power projects.

However, the investors later realized that it would be not easy to make money with wind power projects and they decided to give up.

Le Van