On 14 March in Hanoi, GIZ’s study on Auctioning system for wind energy in Vietnam was introduced to nearly 60 policy makers and stakeholders in the wind power sector in a consultation workshop “Analysis and consideration of an auctioning system for wind power in Vietnam”. The workshop was part of the Support to the Up-Scaling of Wind Power Project (DKTI), which is implemented by the Department of New Energy and Renewable Energy of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

At the workshop, the participants were introduced to Auctioning as an emerging support trend for Renewable Energy deployment in the world in general and in wind energy in particular. International experts shared international examples and lessons on the mechanism. GIZ’s study on applicability of auctioning mechanism for Wind Power sector in Vietnam, which included key findings, recommendations and proposed possible roadmap for implementation, was also introduced.

“Every support mechanism for renewable energy has its own pros and cons, the choice of a suitable mechanism requires a lot of considerations and evaluation of the context as well as targets it should aim for. That is the reason why this workshop was important, as it gathered all relevant market stakeholders so we could listen to concerns and opinions from every angle. Only by doing that, we could make sure that the recommendation and proposal about the auction’s possible applicability could serve as an anchor for future sustainable development of the sector”, said Mr. Tobias Cossen, Head of Project, GIZ’s Up-Scaling of Wind Power Project.

Located in the monsoon climate zone, and shaped by its over 3,000 km long coastline, Vietnam’s potential to develop wind power is large. The existing 2011 wind atlas cited around 24 Gigawatt (GW) of potential*, however until now Vietnam only has around 190 Megawatt (MW) installed capacity of wind power.  According to the Revised National Power Development Plan (PDP VII), the targets for wind energy are set to 800 MW in 2020 and 6,000 MW in 2030.

(*) Source: Wind Resource Atlas of Vietnam”, AWS True Power LLC, 2011