VIETNAM'S largest wind powered plant that is spread over 900 hectares in Thuan Bac district has gone online.
The VND4 trillion (US$173.4 million) plant has 45 wind turbines that can generate up to 151.95 MW.
According to the Vn Express news portal, the wind power plant is combined with a 204 MW solar power plant to form a solar-wind farm complex that is considered the largest in Southeast Asia.
The complex will supply a total 950 million kWh per year for the country's electricity grid.
The plant in central Ninh Thuan province is run by Ho Chi Minh City based private energy firm Trungnam Group.
With the wind powered plant, the company has now added a total of 1,064 MW to the national grid through hydropower, solar and wind power.
It plans to have a renewable output of nearly 10,000 MW by 2027.
Tran Quoc Nam, chairman of Ninh Thuan, said the province was now taking the lead with 32 solar power projects with a total capacity of 2,257 MW, and three wind power projects with a total capacity of 329 MW.
Vietnam is seen to have high potential for renewable energy with its long coastline and 2,700 hours of sunshine a year on average.
Solar power currently accounts for just 0.01 per cent of the country's total power output, but the government plans to increase it to 3.3 per cent by 2030 and 20 per cent by 2050.
The country hopes to produce 10.7 per cent of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030, mainly through solar and wind power projects.
Meanwhile, Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade is considering allowing companies to buy power directly from renewable power plants instead of monopoly state distributor Vietnam Electricity.
The Direct Power Purchase Agreements policy will allow manufacturing companies with minimum 22-kilovolts power lines to negotiate and buy electricity from solar and wind power plants.
In the first three years, when the policy will be tested, the customer needs to buy at least 80 per cent of the agreed power.
Solar and wind farms with a capacity of 30 MW or more can sign these agreements, and they need to begin commercial operations within nine months of joining the pilot programme.
The programme which is expected to start soon, will run until 2023 with a total capacity of around 1,000 MW.
At the end of the pilot programme, the ministry will review it and if satisfied may make the programme permanent.