Vietnam has significant potential and plans for renewable energy, specifically in the solar photovoltaic, wind, biomass and hydropower sectors. The country’s Revised Power Development Master Plan emphasises the importance of all renewable energy sources. In the case of solar, the master plan targets to achieve 850 MW in 2020, about 4,000 MW in 2025 and about 12,000 MW by 2030 – more than 14x growth in capacity in a 10-year span.

To help achieve these ambitious targets, the Vietnam government issued a decree on mechanisms for encouraging the development of solar power in the country. The decree covers both commercial as well as rooftop projects, and includes guidelines on PPA for solar projects, as well as the approval process, power development plans, technical requirements, and tariff structures.

Even with government support for solar growth, the path to increasing the country’s solar generation capacity is not without challenges. Lack of project development capacity, limited access to mainstream financing, and perceived sovereign risks are major barriers to development of solar projects in Vietnam.

Through projects like Ninh Thuan Solar Power, InfraCo Asia aims to support the development of Vietnam’s solar sector by providing the development expertise and early stage development equity needed to catalyse growth. Applying IFC Performance Standards throughout the project’s development is one way the firm will demonstrate a globally recognized approach to project development.

Once constructed, Ninh Thuan Solar Power will be a 168 megawatt peak (MWp) utility-scale solar farm located in the My Son commune, Ninh Son district, Ninh Thuan province of Vietnam.

Ninh Thuan is being developed by a joint venture company established by Sunseap International (Sunseap) and InfraCo Asia Development Pte. Ltd. (IAD). Headquartered in Singapore, Sunseap is a privately held solar developer and independent power producer (IPP) that develops, builds, finances, owns and operates solar projects in the South East Asian and Pacific regions.

Power generated from Ninh Thuan will be sold to EVN, the national utility company through a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) that provides Feed-in-tariff (FIT) in Vietnamese Dong equivalent to US Cents 9.35 cents / kWh. The Vietnamese government has set a December 2020 deadline to achieve commercial operation date (COD) for all solar power plants in Ninh Thuan Province to receive this FIT price. Ninh Thuan is scheduled to have construction complete, and to achieve COD, by Q4 2019, well before the target deadline, ensuring it can realize the pre-December 2020 FIT price. The annual amount of electricity generated from the project will be able to power up to ~192,000 people in the country.