Vietnam gov’t irons out incentives for rooftop solar development

The Vietnamese government is drafting a decree to stimulate the development of rooftop solar power as the country struggles to fully tap its energy potential.

At a meeting to discuss the draft on Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha stressed the importance of rooftop solar power to ensuring energy security.

“Developing this type of renewable energy is an urgent task and will help us successfully implement the eighth National Power Development Plan (PDP8). Encouraging organizations and individuals to invest in rooftop solar power is a consistent policy,” Ha said.

Speaking at the meeting, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien named three incentives for rooftop solar power. They are allowing free installations without following PDP8; installations connected to the national grid to sell excess output with timing-based varying tariffs; and government support for storage installations.

Do Van Nam, a board member at Northern Power Corporation under Vietnam Electricity (EVN), suggested incentives should be given to businesses operating in industrial parks. They should be allowed to develop rooftop solar power with the least paperwork possible.

Sharing the same idea, Bui Quoc Hoan, deputy general director of EVN’s Southern Electricity Corporation, said businesses in industrial parks need to be encouraged to install storage for unused rooftop solar power, which could be transmitted back to the grid during the evening peak times at a suitable price.

Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Quy Kien highlighted that there were no land law-related obstacles to rooftop solar power installations. Furthermore, companies can enjoy green credit-related mechanisms by using rooftop solar power.

Deputy Prime Minister Ha assigned the drafters to detail procedures and incentives for developing rooftop power solar for each purpose, including self-consumption, with and without commercial targets.

Localities should be given more freedom to issue policies to stimulate rooftop solar power, Ha added.

Before the meeting, a number of foreign companies had called on the Vietnamese government to clarify regulations on rooftop solar power, especially for installations in industrial parks, after several incentives were scrapped.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade in late 2023 released a draft decree stipulating that households with their own rooftop solar power systems will be able to contribute any excess power to the national grid run by EVN, but with no payment.