The Central Power Corporation (CPC) under the Viet Nam Electricity (EVN) has paid nearly 1 billion VND (US$43,000) to buy solar power from 134 residential roof-top systems in the central and Central Highlands regions since 2018.

A solar power panel installed on a house's rooftop in Da Nang. — Photo petrotimes.vn

A representative of the Da Nang-based CPC said the money was paid for surplus solar power after family use in connection with the national grid.

It said 134 households from Da Nang City and Dak Lak and Khanh Hoa provinces had released a ‘green’ power capacity of 465,000kWh to the national grid since 2018.

CPC said it had agreed to buy solar power from local residential solar roof-top systems for a price of 2,134 VND (or 9.35 cents) per KWH.

The corporation has inked new solar power contracts with 407 households in the region with designed capacity of 3,864kWh.

According to CPC, the development of roof-top solar systems would help families reduce power payments by releasing surplus power to the national grid.

Da Nang, in co-operation with the European Union, has launched a pilot project to develop solar energy at hospitals, schools and households with total funding of $447,000 from 2017-2020.

The coastal city has great renewable energy potential, with a 90km coastline, 2,000 hours of sunlight per year and average wind speed of 3m per second.

About 30 per cent of the city’s population use solar power for water heaters, while about 20 five-star hotels and resorts are using solar powered water heating systems. Projects using energy from ocean waves, tides and biogas from rural areas are planned for 2025.

Nano-lighting technology and power saving solutions can now be found in public areas, while solar power and energy-saving LED have been installed on deep-sea fishing vessels as part of a pilot project that started in 2013.

Da Nang also plans to build a 4.4MW solar farm on the closed Khánh Sơn Landfill to supply 7.7 million kWh per year to the city’s power grid, while reducing 5,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year.

Since 2017, with the issuance of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s Decision 11/2017, solar power projects have been allowed to sell electricity at a fixed price of 9.35 cents per kWh.

(Source: VNS)