Vietnam has chance to lead in hydrogen, ammonia technology application: expert

Advanced countries are devoting a lot of effort, intelligence and funds to green hydrogen/ammonia. If Vietnam catches up with the trend, the country may become one of the first to apply this technology, said Dr. Nguyen Duc Kien, former head of the Prime Minister’s economic advisory group.

How do you evaluate the importance of green hydrogen/ammonia in Vietnam's energy transition?

First of all, the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress stresses the need for green and sustainable development. In implementing the resolution, in May 2023, the Prime Minister issued the PDP 8 for the 2021-2030 period, with vision until 2050.

From now until 2030, priority will be given to developing clean, green energy towards the goal of net zero emissions by 2050. The step-by-step implementation needed to achieve this goal is very important, in which one of the clearly stated tasks is "developing energy storage systems".

This is a new issue for both the international community and Vietnam. Developing storage technology is the absolutely right direction to solve difficulties that arise when renewable energy systems cannot connect to the grid at peak hours. This is a headache-causing problem when developing renewable energy systems, raising concerns about "gaps" that cause system insecurity.

If we can solve this, we will be solving a main problem with renewable energy. Fortunately, many advanced countries around the world are devoting a lot of effort, intelligence and funds to green hydrogen/ammonia. If Vietnam catches up with the trend, the country may be one of the first countries to apply this green technology.

There have been varying assessments of the role and potential of green hydrogen/ammonia in Vietnam's green energy transition, which is a challenging new field. What are the bottlenecks for Vietnam in green hydrogen/ammonia development?

The biggest challenge for Vietnam today is awareness of green hydrogen among both society at large and macro policy makers. The basic principle regarding application of new technology is to calculate its environmental and social impacts. But applying it can often involve large sums of money. When we started developing solar energy, the price of one kilowatt was twice as that of coal-fuelled power. Therefore, applying green energy requires the public to accept high electricity prices. If we keep arguing for "low electricity prices because of low income", there will never be an environmentally-friendly technology to develop.

The second difficulty is the need for the entire state management system to transform itself from supporting to accompanying businesses. The state does not have enough capital to invest in large projects to develop green hydrogen, so it has to share this responsibility with businesses and the community.

The PDP 8 provides orientations, but is not immutable. It is immutable only in the goal of ensuring enough energy for socio-economic development and meet people's daily needs; and in its gradual approach towards clean, green energy. But the plan allows variability in prioritizing projects with quick payback and high financial ratios.

Businesses must also change their perception right from the time of investment in workshops and factories, when environmental issues have to be recognized and factored in. For example, if you build a textile factory, you must have rooftop electricity to reduce hot emissions on the corrugated iron roof. At the same time, you can use rooftop electricity to partly meet the needs of workers, while using electricity from the grid to run the machines.

Being aware of such things from the beginning requires a mindset change among all businesses. As for society as a whole, we must accept that if we want to develop sustainably and live in a clean, green atmosphere, we must pay higher electricity fees, form the habit of saving electricity, and move forward to support the development of energy-saving technology.

With such an overall picture, Vietnam's industry will have fresh impetus.

Can "something too new" be considered a challenge in developing green hydrogen/ammonia?

This is truly a challenge, but from a macro research perspective, we see that it is both a challenge and an opportunity. In the world, research and development of green hydrogen began more than a decade ago, but the journey from research to production still faces many difficulties. If Vietnam had started at the same time, we could have become one of the world's leading countries in this technology. But new technology always requires great investments.

Recently, some people have suggested that there should be a new law on green hydrogen/ammonia. That's not wrong, but we are in a transition period, just focusing on some leading technologies. It will be very good if there is a law to support green development, including that of green hydrogen, but at first, we should probably focus on the annual budget allocation made by the National Assembly.

What the National Assembly can do right way is to request the government at its upcoming October session to make a report on the green development plan for its annual budget allocation. From a practical perspective, that is the optimal solution. After five years, we can carry out a preliminary review and, if necessary, turn it into a separate law.