Located in the middle of sunny and windy Central Viet Nam with average sunshine hours per year up to 2,100 hours, and an average radiation intensity of 4.89kWh / m2 / day, Da Nang boasts a great potential for solar energy generation, especially rooftop solar panel installation.

Solar panels are already installed on the roof of a local house

Over recent times, there has been an increasing tendency amongst businesses and families in Da Nang to have their rooftops installed with solar panels to generate electric power for their own consumption and sell any excess electricity to the national grid for economic benefits.

For the time being, the installation of solar panels on the rooftops keeps up with the global trend and helps to promote the development of the renewable energy in Da Nang, and the central region and highlands as a whole, specially amid the national government finding ways to reduce reliance on coal-fired power plants and boost renewables.

Located in My An Ward, Ngu Hanh Son District, viewed from a distance, Mr Nguyen My, house looks somewhat different from surrounding ones as its roof is totally covered with eye-catching blue solar panels.

My said that his family has three members but he has to pay monthly electricity bills ranging from 1.7 million VND to 2 million VND, a high power consumption, for the frequent use of such many electrical devices as washing machines, televisions, refrigerators, computers, and kitchenware.

Fully aware of the great economic benefits of the solar power, his family decided to pour money into the installation of solar panels on his house’ rooftops with a total capacity of 5.6kWp. 

With regard to another benefit, these solar panels also help to considerably cool the rooftop, especially in the scorching days, without the use of any heat-resistant materials.

Apart from local families, such large businesses across the city as the Gemstone Forest Solar Limited Liability Company, the Hoa Tho Textiles and Garments Corporation, and the Senko Plastic JSC have developed their own rooftops solar power system with capacities of 80kWp, 189kWp and 118.8kWp, respectively.

According to the Da Nang Power One-member Limited Company (Da Nang PC), as of July 2020, more than 1,200 businesses and families had developed rooftop solar power systems with a combined total installed capacity of over 10,363kWp.  By late this year, this figure will reach nearly 5,000kWp in total.

In reality, families and businesses have added millions of kWh in capacity to the grid, which helps increase clean energy output on the national grid.

Mr Tran Nguyen Bao An, the Deputy Director of the Da Nang PC, said the electricity industry has issued a general preferential mechanism in an attempt to encourage more customers to promote the development of rooftop solar power.

The Da Nang PC has entered power purchase contracts with large numbers of businesses and families with solar panels on their roofs. 

These contracts will be valid for a certain number of years, with money from sale of generated electricity being transferred directly to customers’ bank accounts on a monthly basis. Revenue from selling solar power will be taxed, but only at a preferential rate.

In a supportive move, the PC Da Nang also provides complete information about a wide range of solar panels and their reliable suppliers on the customer care website of the Central Power Corporation at https://cskh.cpc.vn, which allow its customers to easily access multiple options in terms of photovoltaic technique, the operation principles of grid-connected rooftop solar systems and their great economic benefits before making investment decisions.

The Viet Nam Electricity (EVN) has announced that nearly 20,000 rooftop solar power projects with a combined capacity of 541.66 MWp were installed nationwide over the past 7 months.  Till date, more than 41,180 rooftop solar power projects have been put into operation throughout the country with a total capacity of 925.8 MWp.

By TRIEU TUNG- Translated by A.T