Green Innovation and Development Centre
A Blueprint for Vietnam's Clean Energy Future launch
Green Innovation and Development Centre (GreenID) will today launch “A Blueprint for Vietnam's Clean Energy Future” at the workshop “Energy development in the link with environmental protection for sustainable development in Vietnam”. The Blueprint is designed for the development of a healthy, affordable and secure energy system to power Vietnam’s future.
The Blueprint is result of the study “Analysis of future generation capacity scenarios for Vietnam” which was commissioned by GreenID expert. The study models five scenarios to meet Vietnam’s growing energy needs in a least cost manner, while taking into account external cost by air pollution and carbon emission.
It shows that after 2020, Vietnam could avoid building any new coal plants, while maintaining a safe, affordable and secure energy system.
“With the government shaping the country’s next power development plan in 2019, this is a critical time to plan a modern energy system which provides secure and affordable power for Vietnam, without sacrificing people’s health.”
The study shows the most affordable and safest way to meet Vietnam’s future energy needs while complying with the Paris Agreement is to cut 30 GW of coal power – equivalent to 25 coal-fired power plants – which replaced by increasing energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Compared to the current Power Development Plan, PDP VII revised, the optimal scenario in the new Blueprint increases renewable energy from about 21% to 30%; increases natural gas from 14.7% to 22.8%; and reduces coal power from about 42.6% to 24.4%.
Key benefits of the Blueprint:
National energy security increased due to less reliance on imported fuel
Avoid building 30,000 MW of new coal power by 2030, which is equivalent to about 25 coal power plants;
Reduce pressure of mobilizing 60 billion USD investment for these plants;
Avoid burning 70 million tons of coal per year, resulting in cost savings of $7 billion/year due to less reliance on imported coal;
Cut 116 million tons of CO2 emissions annually compared to PDP VII revised, bringing Vietnam closer in line with the Paris Agreement targets;
Reduce air and water pollution, avoiding approximately 7600 premature deaths annually in 2030 compared to PDP VII revised.[1]
“Moving to green energy is very important and necessary because Vietnam is one among few countries which are most severely affected by climate change. Furthermore, go green is the smart direction for Vietnam, a country with rather abundant renewable potentials, especially solar and wind energy. Development of renewable energy is also a reasonable way for Vietnam to avoid dependence on imported energy. On the other side, we are facing a number of challenges, which require great efforts from all stakeholders to enable application and innovation of the renewable energy technology”, said Mr. Nghiem Vu Khai, Vice President of Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations (VUSTA).
“The decisions we take in the next year on our energy system will have implications not just for today but for the next generations,” said Ms. Nguy Thi Khanh, the First Goldman Prize winner in Vietnam, GreenID’s Executive Director.
“We are calling on the government to seize the opportunity to harness Vietnam’s plentiful clean energy resources to power our country, create jobs, drive investment and ensure a safe, healthy future.”
“This Blueprint provides us with a practical pathway to achieve this.”
View the policy summary: http://bit.ly/PolicyBrief050608
View the full report: http://bit.ly/Fullreport050608
Contact details:
Nguyen Trang Nguyen – Communications Officer
Email: nttnguyen@greenidvietnam.org.vn
Tel: 01689929348
[1] Approximate estimation based on Harvard study on “Burden of disease from rising coal-fired power plant emissions in Southeast Asia”
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