Renewables and some other good news
/Some good news, or potentially good news, out of Vietnam.
First, it seems like COVID-19 cases aren’t spreading. According to Johns Hopkins, there are only 218. That’s barely up.
Second, the Vietnamese authorities are re-considering their rice export ban, which is a good thing for other countries and for rice farmers. It turns out that there is probably enough rice for everyone. Farmers say they will be able to export 3m tons, compared to 2019 exports of 6.4m tons.
Third, CPI figures for March came in, and they show only a small decline of 0.58%. There’s no price gouging, and generally prices are stable. I mean, it could be much worse.
Fourth, there are a bunch of announcements of new renewable projects in Vietnam.
There is a new wind farm with high-end turbines from GE. A Filipino conglomerate is making the investment of $80m. It will capacity of 40MW for a cost of $2m per MW. And the project hopes to benefit from the wind feed-in-tariff of 8.5 UScents per kWh.
Construction is beginning on a new gigantic solar farm in Ninh Thuan province to start generating power in 4Q. Total cost is VND14tr ($593m) for 450MW or $1.3m per MW. This is actually a bit expensive, based on what I have looked at (and I don’t know much). US utility-scale projects are $1.06-1.13/watt.
Super Energy Corporation, a Thai company, will acquire four solar projects in Vietnam for a price of $457m. Capacity is 750MW. That’s a great price per MW. All four plants are under construction, so presumably everyone is happy about this - the builder gets some money and Super Energy gets the assets. These projects will get a FiT of 7.09 UScents per kWh.
This article about air pollution in Vietnam just reinforces my view that more renewables are needed, that along with electric vehicles, better public transport and more green spaces. Right now, though, air quality is not so bad in Vietnam!