Vietnam looks to hasten removal of obstacles for offshore wind, LNG power projects

The Vietnamese government has asked ministries and agencies to speed up the removal of obstacles facing offshore wind and liquefied natural gas (LNG) fired power projects.

Deployment of these projects is crucial for bolstering national economic growth, it said.

At a Wednesday meeting of the steering committee for key energy projects, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha asked participants to identify specific hurdles and propose proper solutions.

Offshore wind projects face several bottlenecks related to carrying out maritime research and surveys, planning and selection of investors, the Ministry of Industry and Trade reported.

To remove them, existing laws including the Laws on Investment, Bidding, and Natural Resources and regulations on sea environment and planning have to be amended, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, investors of the LNG-fired Nhon Trach 3 and 4 power plants in the southern province of Dong Nai, which are under construction and poised to become operational in the coming year, are struggling with negotiations on sale volumes committed by the buyer and the feed-in tariff. Moreover, the site for constructing their wastewater plant and transmission grid has not been made available.

Deputy PM Ha directed the industry ministry to review existing legislations and propose for parliamentary consideration a draft resolution allowing a pilot scheme for offshore wind power projects until the related laws are amended.

At a meeting of the steering committee in January, Ha had assigned the industry ministry to lead a multi-agency task force to develop a state-funded pilot project for surveying and selecting investors for offshore wind power projects.

Participants at the Wednesday meeting also proposed that the Dong Nai administration removes hurdles related to urban zoning and site clearance to facilitate construction of necessary works for the two LNG-fired projects.

Ha also asked the industry ministry to propose solutions for resolving issues related to power purchase agreements for the two projects.

Under the eighth Power Development Plan (PDP8) announced in 2023, Vietnam aims to have approximately 6 GW of offshore wind energy by 2030, and 70 GW to 91.5 GW by 2050. However, no projects have been approved so far despite great interest from foreign and domestic investors.