Vietnam leading transition to clean energy in Southeast Asia: British newspaper

The UK’s The Economist on June 4 had an article identifying that Vietnam is leading the transition to clean energy in Southeast Asia. Accordingly, Southeast Asian countries can draw a few lessons from Vietnam.

According to The Economist, as of 2021, Vietnam had become the world’s tenth-biggest producer of solar power. The share of electricity generated by solar in Vietnam increased from practically nothing to nearly 11%. It is a bigger share than larger economies such as France or Japan have managed.

This "extraordinary achievement" was gained primarily through political will and market forces. Underscoring his country’s commitment to the energy transition, Pham Minh Chinh, Vietnam’s Prime Minister, vowed in November to stop building new coal-powered plants and to reduce his country’s emissions to net zero by 2050.

The article also stated that other Southeast Asian countries that want to step up their game can draw some lessons from Vietnam. Vietnam has quadrupled its wind and solar power capacity compared to 2019.

In 2017, the Government began to pay solar suppliers at a fixed price of nearly VND2,200 per kilowatt-hour supplied to the grid.

The article said that this price is quite generous because the cost per kilowatt-hour usually ranges from VND1,100-1,600. As a result, 100,000 rooftop solar panels were installed in 2019 and 2020, bringing Vietnam's solar capacity to 16GW.

Contributing to Vietnam's achievement are reforms that make it easier for foreign investors to do business, but, according to The Economist, if it hopes to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, Vietnam will have to put in more effort.