Viet Nam will not develop coal-fired power plants after 2030 to meet its international commitments on achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Accordingly, the Government has assigned the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) to study and implement the National Power Development Plan for the 2021-30 period with a vision to 2045 (PDP8) so as to make it include measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 as per the Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s commitments at the COP 26 UN Climate Change Conference (COP26).

Under this direction, the MoIT will have to review coal-fired power plants to not further develop them and find alternative fuel sources for the plants after 2030.

Besides, the Government has also required the MoIT to map out incentive policies to encourage the development of offshore wind power sources.

It also needs to research policies and solutions for more efficient and rational use of solar energy sources, the Government noted.

The MoIT must clearly define the criteria of important projects and investment priorities to ensure the implementation of the PDP8 to be open, transparent and feasible.

In addition, it is necessary to propose effective and feasible management mechanisms to ensure the PDP8 succeeds and absolutely avoids a power shortage in the country.

The MoIT is streamlining the PDP8, which provides the roadmap for the country’s power sector including an exhaustive list of proposed projects.

Under the latest version of the plan presented by the MoIT at last month’s conference, power generation capacity from new imported LNG will be slashed to 22.4 gigawatts (GW) by 2030 from 40.95GW in the draft published in March. The planned power generation capacity from new LNG by 2045 will also fall to 55.75GW, from 83.55GW in the March draft.

However, power generation capacity from domestic natural gas and the conversion of coal-fired plants to LNG will be kept unchanged at 14.78GW by 2030 in the new draft.

Coal-fired power generation will be reduced to 39.7GW by 2030 in the latest draft, down from 46.4GW in the March draft.

Meanwhile, offshore wind power will be raised to 4GW by 2030 from 3GW in the March draft, while electricity storage capacity will be doubled to 2.4GW from 1.2GW in the March draft.

The most significant change in the latest version is the pipeline of new LNG-based power projects being cut by nearly half, dampening expectations that Viet Nam will be the next big market for LNG in Southeast Asia.

At COP26, besides commitments to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, Viet Nam signed the Global Methane Pledge aimed at reducing methane emissions, and committed to phase out and not build or invest in new coal-fired power plants under the Global Coal to Clean Power Transition Statement. — VNS