Opportunity to develop "made in Vietnam" renewable energy electrical equipment

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Sir, as a researcher, how do you evaluate Vietnam's renewable energy development process in recent years?

In my opinion, Vietnam's most valuable lesson is not predicting the "hot" development of solar power, leading to a situation where many authorities' policies are no longer "going ahead with guidance" but "going behind and resolving the consequences" of the solar power crisis.

However, it is also important to know that this is not a problem unique to Vietnam but a common problem of even countries with highly developed solar power technology such as China and the United States.

Among renewable energy sources, solar power is the fastest growing and most realistic technology that can replace a significant portion of fossil energy sources in the future. However, in my opinion, in the next 10 years, solar power will not be able to develop into a reliable source of energy for people's production and daily life.

Therefore, while developing solar power, on the one hand, we must also consider options to improve efficiency, such as developing and applying renewable energy storage technology. On the other hand, in the long term, it is also necessary to research and deploy stable, reliable and sufficient energy sources with low emissions such as wind power, gas power, biomass power, even nuclear power to meet increasing energy demand and ensure energy security and national development.

After the valuable lesson from the "hot" development of solar power, what is your opinion on Vietnam's energy transition?

Everyone knows that the rooftop solar power crisis has not really ended yet, billions of kWh of rooftop solar power have not yet been connected to the grid. The regulated transmission system cannot keep up with the development of solar power. The summer 2023 power outage, with estimated losses of billions of dollars while excess solar power, has had an impact on many people's awareness of the role of renewable energy, specifically solar power.

However, we still believe that energy transition is an inevitable trend. Fossil energy from coal, oil and gas is increasingly depleted, forcing people to find new energy sources. Fossil energy emits many greenhouse gases that cause climate change, global warming, ice melt and extreme weather changes such as storms, floods, environmental destruction, natural disasters, and crop failures that threaten the existence of humanity. Renewable energy such as wind energy, solar energy... will be an eternal source of energy to maintain the existence of human society in the future.

We cannot stand on the sidelines when benefiting from the JETP agreement, in which Vietnam receives US$15.5 billion in support from developed countries to implement the commitment to transition from fossil energy sources to low-emission energy.

At the same time, it is expected that from 2025, with the "Cross-Border Carbon Adjustment Mechanism" referred to as CBAM, European Union countries will “tax carbon” on all goods imported into their markets based on the intensity of greenhouse gas emissions in the production process in the host country. Vietnam is a country with a low technology level, so the amount of emissions per product is very high. When exporting to the European market, there will be a high carbon tax, directly affecting the motivation for export development. Therefore, to develop the economy, Vietnam needs to use renewable energy to help reduce the carbon footprint of products and increase export value.

It can be said that Power Plan VIII was born to focus resources on gradually reducing fossil energy and gradually increasing the proportion of renewable energy (100% by 2050), demonstrating the highest spirit of responsibility of today's generation towards the future.

The transition from fossil energy to renewable energy will lead to huge demand for technical equipment in the power industry. Is this an opportunity for Vietnamese businesses in this shift, sir?

The technical equipment system to serve electricity planning VIII such as: wind turbines, solar power equipment such as solar panels, inverters, hydrogen industrial equipment complexes such as electrolysis, compression liquid, hydrogen storage and transportation, electrical storage devices such as Lithium batteries, Vanadium batteries... are all high-tech products that exceed Vietnam's technological level. Therefore, in recent times, these devices have had to be imported at great cost. This is both a challenge and an opportunity for us to "stand on the shoulders of giants".

Fully aware of such circumstances, we are forced to consider and calculate carefully in the process of choosing cooperation partners and equipment and supplies with advanced technology so as not to turn Vietnam into a "technological landfill". At the same time, it is necessary to promote the internal strength and creative spirit of Vietnamese people to research and decode and proceed to master and self-produce some equipment of renewable energy technology under the Made in Vietnam brand, from there, gradually replace imported products.

Thank you, sir!