GE opens wind-turbine plant

Aerial view of GE manufacturing facility in Nomura Industrial Zone in Hai Phong. — VNS Photo

HAI PHONG — In response to growing global demand for clean energy, General Electric officially inaugurated its first manufacturing facility in the northern port city of Hai Phong yesterday.

The factory, which has a total investment of more than US$61 million, will manufacture wind turbine components. Parts will be shipped to GE wind turbine manufacturing factories worldwide.

The plant occupies a 8.4ha in Nomura-Hai Phong Industrial Zone and has a designed capacity of 1,500 products per year. It expected to generate 400 jobs.

Initially, the facility will produce generators for 1.5MW wind turbines.

John Krenicki, GE vice chairman and CEO of GE Energy, said: "Viet Nam is an ideal place for GE to invest and expand our manufacturing capability because it has a skilled work force and a bright future in its energy sector."

"With demand for electricity, fuel, and water continuing to rise around the world we believe that building in Viet Nam is a great investment," he added.

Over the past few years, GE has invested in a number of activities in Viet Nam, ranging from clean energy and health care to aviation.

Tran Tuan Anh, deputy minister of Industry and Trade, said he hoped GE would expand its production base in Hai Phong to include other wind turbine components.

"Wind power is a completely new sector in Viet Nam. Demand is increasing and fossil energy resources are exhausted. Thus, recycled energy development will play an important role in ensuring national energy security," he said.

GE and the Ministry of Industry and Trade signed a strategic partnership agreement on Thursday in Ha Noi.

GE will continue investing in the hi-tech clean energy sector in the country, focusing on the manufacture of gas turbines and development of support industries, the deputy minister said.

GE launched in Viet Nam in 1993, one of the very first American companies to do so after the US lifted its trade embargo.

The company later set up a representative office in HCM City in 2001. In 2003, GE established the 100 per cent foreign-invested GE Viet Nam Co Ltd in Viet Nam.

GE is a global infrastructure, finance and media company, operating in the energy, water, transportation, health, oil and gas, finance and information sectors. It reaped a revenue of $40 billion last year. — VNS

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Ministry completes draft decision on wind-power prices

Two men work on a power line in HCMC in a file photo. Wind power is now supplied to the national grid but regulations on wind power selling prices are not yet out - Photo: TL

HCMC – The Ministry of Industry and Trade has finished a draft decision on selling prices of wind power, which an official said is expected to create a much-needed framework for developing wind power in the country.  

Le Tan Phong, deputy director of the ministry’s Department of Energy, told the Daily on Tuesday that the decision would likely be submitted to the Government within this week for final approval.

He declined to elaborate on the draft decision, but another official said the selling price would likely be raised to 8 U.S. cents a kWh compared to the current 5.5 cents. That will be a strong boon for investors engaging in wind-power projects, said Ho Son Hung, deputy director of the Department of Industry and Trade of Binh Thuan Province, where several wind-power projects are being planned.

Hung said that according to the latest suggestions by the province for the drafted decision, “the selling price of wind power could be set at about 8 U.S cents per kilowatt hour, with a subsidy from the State.

“This price would be encouraging enough for investors to spend their money to develop more wind power projects in the coming time.”

He also noted that many wind power investors have grown impatient in recent years due to the absence of a concrete decision on the selling price of the wind power.

By this time, Binh Thuan authorities have approved a total of 12 projects of wind power development. One such project located in Binh Thuan’s Tuy Phong District has lately generated power to the national grid, although the selling price has not been settled between the investor and Electricity of Vietnam Group, or EVN.

Tran Viet Ngai, chairman of the Vietnam Energy Association told the Daily early this week that the Government should have more preferential policies for the development of wind and solar power. Particularly, investors of renewable energy have repeatedly asked for higher selling prices of power generated from wind and solar sources.

Referring to the above-mentioned wind power project in Binh Thuan, Ngai said, the 7.5MW plant was already supplying power to the national grid, the wide gap remained between the developer and EVN.

“That is because the investor wanted to sell power at 11 U.S. cents per kWh while EVN wanted it to be only 5.5 cents,” said the chairman of the association.

Experts said the country has huge potential to develop as much as 5,000MW of wind power.

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Ninh Thuan okays US$500-mil. wind power project

HCMC – Authorities of the central province of Ninh Thuan have just agreed in principle a project by Trung Nam Investment and Construction Joint Stock Co. to develop a wind power project with total designed capacity of 200MW.

In a document signed last Friday by provincial chairman Nguyen Chi Dung, the project will be carried out on the total area of 900 hectares encompassing two villages of Loi Hai and Bac Phong in Thuan Bac District.

Nguyen Hai Yen, marketing manager of Trung Nam Investment and Construction Joint Stock Co., told the Daily on Monday that the wind power project would require total investment of US$500 million.

In a letter of commitment sent to the provincial government, the company also pledges to carry out another project manufacturing technical equipments to supply local wind power plants once its 200-MW wind power project is completed.

According to recent studies conducted by Trung Nam Company, Ninh Thuan Province has much potential for wind power with the average power velocity of some seven meters per second.     

Vietnam has now attached importance to renewable energy. In its strategic plan for renewable energy development, the country targets renewable energy to account for 5% of the total power output by 2020 and up to 11% by 2050.

The amount of renewable energy currently accounts for some 3%.

According to Vietnam Renewable Energy Center, Vietnam has the potential to generate as much as 100,000MW of wind power, with localities suitable for wind power development mostly located in coastal areas in central provinces such as Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan.

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Ninh Thuan okays US$500-mil. wind power project

HCMC – Authorities of the central province of Ninh Thuan have just agreed in principle a project by Trung Nam Investment and Construction Joint Stock Co. to develop a wind power project with total designed capacity of 200MW.

In a document signed last Friday by provincial chairman Nguyen Chi Dung, the project will be carried out on the total area of 900 hectares encompassing two villages of Loi Hai and Bac Phong in Thuan Bac District.

Nguyen Hai Yen, marketing manager of Trung Nam Investment and Construction Joint Stock Co., told the Daily on Monday that the wind power project would require total investment of US$500 million.

In a letter of commitment sent to the provincial government, the company also pledges to carry out another project manufacturing technical equipments to supply local wind power plants once its 200-MW wind power project is completed.

According to recent studies conducted by Trung Nam Company, Ninh Thuan Province has much potential for wind power with the average power velocity of some seven meters per second.     

Vietnam has now attached importance to renewable energy. In its strategic plan for renewable energy development, the country targets renewable energy to account for 5% of the total power output by 2020 and up to 11% by 2050.

The amount of renewable energy currently accounts for some 3%.

According to Vietnam Renewable Energy Center, Vietnam has the potential to generate as much as 100,000MW of wind power, with localities suitable for wind power development mostly located in coastal areas in central provinces such as Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan.

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Wind power, titanium projects on direct collision course

Wind power in Binh Thuan holds big potential development, but projects in this sector are on a direct collision course with titanium ones - Photo: Khai Nguyen

HCMC, BINH THUAN – Several projects in both wind power and titanium mining sectors in the central province of Binh Thuan have been put on hold as most of the land reserved for wind power overlaps the sites for titanium mining, a provincial official said.

Ho Son Hung, deputy director of the province’s Department of Industry and Trade, told the Daily on Thursday that the provincial government had to date licensed a total of 12 wind power projects covering some 14,000 hectares.

“However, nearly 12,000 hectares of land for the wind power projects is overlapping areas of titanium exploitation with total reserves of some 500 million tons,” he said after a meeting on wind power on Thursday in Binh Thuan.

The twelve licensed wind power projects are Binh Thuan Wind Power 1, Tien Thanh, Phuoc The, Saigon-Binh Thuan, Mien Dong, Thuan Nhien Phong, Binh Thuan, Phu Lac, Van Thanh, HD, WPD, and Vinh Hao.

“This has been an awkward situation for years. We have asked the Government to give a final decision on which areas to be allowed for tapping titanium now and which titanium areas are to be reserved for next generations so that we could continue licensing wind power projects in the coming time,” he said.

“The province will hopefully receive a final decision from the Government in November this year,” he said.

Because of the overlapping situation, the province has decided to stop giving more investment licenses for wind power projects while pending a clearer plan for exploiting titanium reserves.

Hung said he had just heard that the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment had completed a scheme pinpointing locations of titanium around the province. Binh Thuan is expecting to have the scheme soon.

In recent years, Binh Thuan Province has been known as an attractive place for investors of both titanium projects and wind power projects. The province is said to have total wind power potentiality of some 3,000 MW to be developed between 2010 and 2020 on a total area of some 75,500 hectares, while titanium reserves in the locality are estimated at half a billion tons.

The province on Thursday organized a seminar on wind power development with the participation of many domestic and international energy experts.

Many experts agreed that Binh Thuan’s wind power potentiality will be effectively tapped if the power generated from wind is sold at a better price to ensure profits for investors.

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