Solar power project in Vietnam
Context
Vietnam’s energy demands have consistently increased since the 1990s, with consumption per capita more than doubling over the last decade. Drastic increases in demand and insufficient supply has led to power shortages in Vietnam, negatively impacting people’s daily lives and slowing economic growth. A key contributor to the power shortages is over-reliance on coal – when coal supplies are disrupted this has big implications for Vietnam’s power supply.
In 2018, less than 1TWh of Vietnam’s energy was derived from solar power, but Vietnam’s solar capacity is increasing. Just 3 years later, 67TWh of energy being consumed was being generated from solar power, making up 5.5% of the total energy consumption.
Project
This project is situated in the Vinh Hao commune, Tuy Phong district, Binh Thuan province, Vietnam, and will generate electricity using photovoltaic technology, which transforms sunlight into electricity. The project is located on around 60ha of salt farm, and will generate 83,750MWh of power annually.
Over the course of the 10-year crediting period, the project will avoid 704,110tCO2e from being emitted, by replacing energy in the grid that would otherwise have been generated from the combustion of fossil fuels.
The construction process of the project was carefully managed to minimise the impact on the local environment. During the operation of the project pollution will also be minimised through a series of measures, including ensuring no littering takes place, and waste materials will be responsibly disposed of off-site.
Throughout the design process of the project, local people were extensively involved. The People’s Committee of Binh Thuan province approved the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report, and agreed to the mitigation measures that would be implemented to combat the negative impacts identified in the report, including how broken PV panels would be dealt with during the operational phase of the project.
Additionally, the project is contributing directly to improving the living standards of local residents at the Vinh Hao commune, and in the Binh Thuan province generally, through economic support funds: the commune gratitude fund in the Vinh Hao commune, and the learning promotion fund in the Binh Thuan province.
Verification
This project is verified by the Verified Carbon Standard. You can view it on the Verra Registry here.
Climate Solution #8
Utility-scale solar photovoltaics
The sun provides a virtually unlimited, clean, and free fuel at a price that never changes. Solar farms take advantage of that resource, with large-scale arrays of hundreds, thousands, or in some cases millions of photovoltaic (PV) panels. They operate at a utility scale like conventional power plants in the amount of electricity they produce, but dramatically differ in their emissions.
In many parts of the world, solar PV is now cost competitive with or less costly than conventional power generation. In tandem with other renewables and enabled by better grids and energy storage, solar farms are ushering in the clean energy revolution.
The significant increase of the solution use could avoid 44-119 gigatons of greenhouse gases emissions depending on the climate mitigation ambition and electrification of demand side sectors.