Vietnam's wind power capital not attracting investors

Considered Vietnam's wind power capital.

Yet the central province of Bin Thuan, with as many as 20 wind power projects planned for development until 2020, is not likely to meet capacity targets.

It turned out that investors are discouraged by the long time to recoup their investments.

Under the development master plan for the 2011 – 2020 period, the wind farms in Binh Thuan are expected to reach the installed capacity of 700MW, with nearly 1,500 kWh of total equivalent wind power output.

“But the target seems unfeasible,” said Duong Tan Phong, head of power and energy management of the provincial Department of Industry and Trade.

He added that the best that can be done is to lower it to 500MW.

The largest obstacle at the moment is the lack of capital from the investors, he analyzed.

“A turbine for wind power costs millions of US dollars, but it takes quite a long time to recoup investments.

In 2010 the PV Power RE Co Ltd broke ground on the Phu Quy wind power project with three turbines.

The VND335-billion project with a total capacity of 6MW officially became operational last August with the first two turbines beginning supplying power for the area. 

But the company will have to earmark some VND10 billion on an annual basis in order to offset losses from the project, company director Pham Cuong said.

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