Vietnam

Falling module prices will help PV post another record year after an estimated 132 GW was installed worldwide in 2020, according to an energy transition investment trends report published by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

The private-sector arm of the World Bank, which claims to leverage $3 of its own capital and $8 from third parties for every dollar invested in its blended finance funds, has attempted to quantify what devoting Covid recovery funds to green investment would mean for emerging economies.

Two 35 MW floating facilities were deployed on the Gia Hoet 1 and Tam Bo irrigation lakes in the Chau Duc district commune of Quang Thanh.

Through the new factory, the company’s total module production capacity will be raised to 6.6 GW. The manufacturing facility will also have a cell capacity of 2 GW.

Chinese tier-1 manufacturer Seraphim announced plans for a new factory in Vietnam. The module assembly facility will have 750 MW total capacity and is expected to serve both local and international demand.

The latest edition of the accountant’s renewables attractiveness index has placed the nation in top spot for photovoltaics, helping it to fourth spot for overall clean energy investment. Mexico has been hammered by the government’s attitude to clean power and France has also slipped, four places.

Analyst WoodMac says South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam will also join India and Australia next year, among the nations where clean energy projects are cheaper than new coal power plants.

The development process for ground-mounted utility scale solar projects in Vietnam is laborious, time-consuming, expensive and still largely difficult to navigate for foreign developers without entering a strategic partnership, in whatever form, with a local Vietnamese counterpart.

Vietnam has now effectively overtaken Thailand as the largest solar market in Southeast Asia in terms of installed solar operational capacity, with more than 6,314 MW installed up to September 2020. Many hundreds of MWs of solar projects are also still under construction or development. However, its solar (and other renewable energy) M&A activity has developed very slowly to date. There are many reasons to expect that this is about to change, but before we examine them, let us review the main factors behind this sluggish tempo.

With the International Energy Agency publishing its latest five-year clean energy forecast today, pv magazine takes a look at the solar content of the 162-page document.