Vietnam extends provincial FiT scheme – with caveats

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At first glance, news the FiT scheme in Vietnam‘s Ninh Thuan province is being extended by a year appears positive, with legal firm Baker McKenzie reporting: “Resolution No.115 [extending the scheme] is good news for solar power projects” in the region.

But the article – published yesterday on the Lexology online daily legal news service – carries caveats to the announcement, not least that the cap of 2 GW of new solar eligible is being applied in a province where a recent Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade report estimated there is around 1.9 GW of PV.

The article states the government of Vietnam on August 31 extended the VND2,086/kWh ($0.09/kWh) FiT scheme – due to close on June 30 next year – by 12 months.

By including in its resolution the description that eligible projects are those “which have been approved by the prime minister for implementation”, the report's authors ponder whether schemes up to 50 MWp in size – that currently qualify for payments under the Power Development Master Plan – will be excluded from the extension as they require only provincial, rather than prime ministerial approval.

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The extension to the FiT scheme was agreed by the national government at its July meeting, and confirmed in a resolution dated August 8, according to the report.

The report's authors advise developers unsure which projects will qualify for the extended FiT scheme to opt to support late-stage projects.

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