As banks shun coal, Vietnam emerges an unlikely solar champion
Solar array atop Intel’s Vietnam assembly and test factory in Ho Chi Minh City.
(Reference image by Intel Free Press, Wikimedia Commons).
Nguyen Tuan was watching the sun shine down on his four-hectare cantaloupe farm in southern Vietnam when he realized it could do more than help his crops grow.
The 46-year-old installed 40 solar panels on greenhouses at his farm 55 miles outside of Ho Chi Minh City. Thanks to generous subsidies from the national utility, he not only cut his power bill but now earns about two million dong ($87) a month selling excess electricity to the nation’s grid.
Vietnam Emerges an Unlikely Solar Champion as Funding for Coal Dwindles
(Bloomberg) Nguyen Tuan was watching the sun shine down on his four-hectare cantaloupe farm in southern Vietnam when he realized it could do more than help his crops grow.
The 46-year-old installed 40 solar panels on greenhouses at his farm 55 miles outside of Ho Chi Minh City. Thanks to generous subsidies from the national utility, he not only cut his power bill but now earns about 2 million dong ($87) a month selling excess electricity to the nation’s grid.
Tuan’s farm is just one tiny part of the extraordinary 100-fold increase in solar power that’s taken place in Vietnam over the last two years. The Southeast Asian nation now ranks seventh in the world in terms of capacity, according to clean energy research group BloombergNEF, and in 2020 the only countries that installed more solar panels were the U.S. and China.
Thursday, 00:16, 06/05/2021
HCM City is to become a smart urban area, maintain its role as the country’s economic engine, and realise its goal of becoming an economic and financial hub in Asia, experts have said.
Overview of Landmark 81 building in Ho Chi Minh City
During a seminar on May 5 to discuss the city’s development orientations during 2021-2030 and vision to 2045, Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong said that despite COVID-19 last year the city’s economy still grew 1.39% with local budget revenue standing at more than VND371 trillion (US$16.1 billion), contributing more than 25% of the State budget.
Exports dependence on FDI sector concerns experts Chia sẻ | FaceBookTwitter Email Copy Link Copy link bài viết thành công
17/04/2021 06:30 GMT+7
Vietnam has enjoyed high export growth but experts are concerned that the main contributor is foreign direct investment (FDI).
The local export turnover is estimated at $77.34 billion, an increase of 22 per cent. VNA/VNS File photo
In the first quarter of the year, the country saw an estimated import and export value of US$152.65 billion, up 24.1 per cent over the same period last year. Of which, export turnover was estimated at $77.34 billion, an increase of 22 per cent from Q1 of 2020.