The Mekong province wants to harness its wind
potential, despite a lack of pricing support. The Mekong Delta's Bac Lieu
Province scrapped plans for a coal-fired thermal power plant to pursue
clean-energy options, last week. The provincial government has requested
permission to withdraw from the project to build wind turbines. Bac Lieu is
currently home to one of Viet Nam’s three wind power plants, the other two are
located in Binh Thuan Province just north of the tourist town Mui Ne. Authorities
in Bac Lieu expressed a desire to reserve local water resources for seafood
farms, since thermal power plants require lots of water for cooling. The Viet Nam
Sustainable Energy Alliance (VSEA) has released studies on coal plants in Hai
Phong and Quang Ninh Province that discharge from their cooling systems
measured nine degrees (centigrade) hotter than the temperatures in the
surrounding waters. Bac Lieu's change of plans drew support from the central
government and has been hailed by energy experts as a breakthrough in the
country's pursuit of dirty coal-fired power. Viet Nam scrambled to develop a
new network of coal-fired plants after news of droughts and damage attributed
to hydropower dams circulated widely in the media. Beyond popular discontent
with the dams, experts say the country has already tapped every available
hydrological resource for power. The
country spent more than $600 million importing 9.7 million tons of coal in the
first eight months of the year, significantly exceeding its annual projections
of a mere 4 million tons. Officials have ascribed the spike in imports to
urgent power needs. The government has announced plans to build and operate 14
coal-fired power plants in the Mekong Delta by 2030, adding a total capacity of
around 18,000 megawatts to the power-hungry south. The scuttled plant in Bac
Lieu was projected to contribute 2,600 of those megawatts. However, the VSEA
has warned that the 14 plants will discharge around 70 million cubic meters of
40°C water, posing significant risk to an aquatic ecology that sustains 20
million people. Major concerns about the plants' carbon dioxide emissions have
also raised concerns about community health, experts said. Last year, a joint
study produced by Green Peace and Harvard University estimated that air
pollution created by coal-fired power plants kills around 4,300 people in Viet
Nam each year; the study estimated that toll would rise to 25,000 per year if
the Mekong Delta plants went into operation. Bac Lieu’s green power ambitions
may prove far-fetched given a lack of pricing support for clean power
development. The government’s pricing rules require the state-owned Electricity
of Viet Nam to pay wind power plants 7.8 U.S. cents a kWh - a rate roughly
equivalent to the average retail price in the country. Bui Van Thinh, Vice Chairman
of the Binh Thuan Province Wind Power Association, told the Sai Gon Times
Online that the current wind price isn't high enough to draw needed investment.
The association has called on the government to raise wind prices to 10 U.S.
cents this year and 12 U.S. cents in 2017. Last year, officials in Binh Thuan
and the neighboring province of Ninh Thuan revoked investment licenses for
several projects that had stalled due to a lack of capital.
E.vnexpress.net
– September 29 – http://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/vietnam-province-scraps-coal-plant-over-environmental-concerns-3476051.html
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