CLEAN POWER

Vietnamese Solar Power Plant Could Reach 2.8 Gigawatts Soon

ByZachary Shahan
Published2 days ago

As we wrote in May, Vietnam has become a surprising solar power champion in the past year. Well, it shot into the role in December 2020. And it seems that it’s happy to keep going. Recent news is that the largest solar park in Vietnam is set to get a big boost and get even significantly larger by early 2022.

An 832 megawatt (MW) expansion is planned for Xuan Thien Ea Sup, which will bring it to 2.8 gigawatts (GW)! The expansion plans actually didn’t come from a press release from Xuan Thien Group, the developer, but were revealed in a report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).

Furthermore, “Chinese panel supplier Longi Solar announced the 273 MW first phase of the VND20 trillion ($869 million) project had been completed five months ahead of schedule in November, after construction had started in April last year,” pv-magazine writes.

Regarding Vietnam’s overall solar boom, in May Johnna wrote, “In Vietnam, banks are shunning coal; enabling the nation to shine brightly as a solar champion. … Vietnam has seen a 100-fold increase in solar power over the last two years and now ranks seventh in the world in terms of total installed capacity, BloombergNEF noted. In 2020, the only countries that installed more solar than Vietnam were the U.S. and China! … In addition, the increasingly low prices of solar panels have created a cheap and convenient alternative. What’s more is that many of these solar panels are assembled domestically.”

Vietnam has certainly been one of the brightest solar success stories of the past couple of years. It looks as though that will continue, but I’m eager to see the 2021 numbers. And if Vietnam can bust out of the gates with solar like this, then what’s saying many other countries can’t? Who will follow Vietnam’s example and become a solar champion next?