Vietnam roof solar records significant boom as more than 9GW set up in 2020

• Roof solar setups skyrocketed in Vietnam last year before a tough installment target date for feed-in tariffs, with more than 9GWp of rooftop solar installed in the country.

Throughout 2020 roof solar installations in Vietnam expanded by a major 2,435%, rising from a 2019 base of 378MWp to 9.583 GWp, spread throughout nearly 102,000 systems.

The growth numbers are validated by state-owned Vietnam Electricity (EVN), though the numbers have actually been further modified upward in the past day.

Vietnam roof solar installations expanded gradually in H1 2020 in spite of the pandemic as well as a nationwide lockdown period enforced in the country. Rooftop solar growth continued to speed up throughout Q3 2020, before escalating in December 2020.

Vietnam's tremendous roof solar market was driven by a second model, FIT2 (feed-in tariff) policy paying USD $0.0838 per kWh over a period of 20 years for systems with a Commercial Operation Date of 31 December 2020 at the current.

The FIT2 was just finalised in very early April 2020 after preliminary assumptions were for an expansion of the original USD $0.0935 per kWh roof solar FIT.

Per the inset graph, advancing Vietnam rooftop solar reached a remarkable 2.876 GWp by the end of November 2020 with regular monthly installation of some 851MWp. While many forecasted a few GWp variety of rooftop solar installments in December, EVN linked 6.708 GWp in the last FIT2 eligible month.

The above data is from EVN as well as the Viet Nam Energy Partnership Group (VEPG).

To place this in a Vietnam perspective, the initial FIT plan developed a solar ground install boom with 2019 installments of regarding 5.317 GWp from a collective 2018 solar base of 106 MWp, per International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) Renewable Capacity Statistics.

Furthermore, a notice from the Vietnam Ministry of Industry and also Trade (MOIT), dated 31 December 2020, revealed cumulative PV ability got to 16.449 GWp (13.160 GWac) by the year's end, indicating one more 1.549 GWp of ground install as well as floating solar projects additionally achieved COD under FIT2 in 2020.

The FIT2 rates for ground mount and floating solar projects were USD $0.0709/ kWh and also USD $0.0769/ kWh respectively.

However, 38 solar projects equivalent to 2.888 GWac of capacity, did not get approved for FIT2. Possibly several of these did not satisfy the roof solar needs. MOIT clarified the roof solar definition back in September as a number of agricultural rooftops were constructed for the sole function of installing solar. The late-year surge may have consisted of these frameworks customized by creating walls in order to get approved for the FIT2.

Potential customers for the extension of the rooftop solar FIT plan have currently lowered, and EVN specified new PPAs of roof solar power would certainly quit with the expiration of the FIT2 policy. Maybe a new FIT would incentivise solar-plus-storage to resolve peak power demand in Vietnam from 5:30 -6:30 pm. during and also after sundown. Meanwhile, Vietnam has actually been crafting extra concentrated plans to incentivise renewables for over a year.

A recommended digital eco-friendly Direct Power Purchase Agreement (DPPA) program would certainly enable factories as well as organization to resource 100% renewable energy from exclusive firms via the EVN grid. The ingenious plan device has been established by the MOIT firm, Electricity Regulatory Authority of Vietnam (ERAV), with the assistance of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Multinational brands as well as international direct investors are solid supporters for the DPPA program to power their complex supply chains with renewable resource. A pilot DPPA program was expected in 2014 however may debut in 2021 as technical and also lawful problems are solved prior to the intro.

Solar public auctions are also proposed for straight sale of electrical energy to EVN. The initial pilot program, described in a draft choice, limits participants to ground install or floating solar farm projects already consisted of in the Power Development Master Plan. More solar public auction standards include a proposed tariff below FIT2, readily available EVN grid ability, and conference defined COD days.