Vietnam

The Vietnamese government has announced a $135 billion energy strategy, with half of the country’s residential rooftops to be equipped with PV systems under a net-metering scheme. The nation also aims to become a power exporter by the end of the decade.

BMW has launched its iX5 Hydrogen vehicle pilot fleet, with plans to start production by the end of the decade. Everfuel and Hy24, meanwhile, have launched a joint venture to accelerate hydrogen development in Scandinavia.

After an interim high in 2021, polysilicon imports into China fell again in 2022, but the country’s share in global output still came close to 90%, according to a new report by Bernreuter Research.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIOT) recently introduced new ceiling prices for solar and wind projects that sell electricity to Electricity of Vietnam (EVN). The ceiling price for ground-mounted solar has been slashed from $0.0709/kWh to $0.0502/kWh, threatening the financial viability of large-scale solar projects.

Trina Solar said it will start operating a new 6.5 GW solar wafer factory in Vietnam from mid-2023 to exclusively supply the utility, commercial and industrial (C&I) segments in the United States, as well as the US residential solar market.

Following a disappointing COP27 climate change summit in November, solar industry veteran Philip Wolfe reviews the contribution utility-scale PV is starting to make to emissions reduction.

While near neighbors, the electricity generation of the countries of Southeast Asia couldn’t be further apart. Indonesia burns locally mined coal; Malaysia has reserves of oil and gas; and populous Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines depend on fossil fuel imports. They could all benefit from increased solar electricity but higher grid capacities and interconnection are key for an opportunity to unlock the power of the sun.

The Vietnamese government has been working on a scheme to allow bilateral power purchase agreements (PPAs) since 2020. The start of the pilot scheme has been delayed and is now expected for the first quarter of 2023. The official program would launch in 2025.

Indonesia will have to get to work installing more than 24 GW of solar this year – and every year – if the region is to achieve the 2.1 TW to 2.4 TW of photovoltaics Irena has estimated it will require to achieve a net zero carbon energy system by 2050.

The average global price of solar kilowatt-hours fell 13% on 2020’s prices, as around two-thirds of the renewables capacity installed last year was cheaper than the lowest-cost fossil fuel alternative.