Norway’s Scatec Solar is on preparations for US$500 million worth of large-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) farms and some other ambitious projects in Vietnam. 
Scatec Solar’s CEO Raymond Carlsen. Photo: Enovakonferansen
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The total capacity would be allocated in the southern province of Binh Phuoc with 140 MW and the remaining 345 MW would be in stations located in two central provinces of Quang Tri and Nghe An.
But how the company makes the projects feasible to pursue its long-term strategies in Vietnam remains a question.
Firm foundation
Firstly, Scatec Solar takes the lead in solar power operators in Africa with a managing office in Cape Town, South Africa, according to Scatec Solar’s CEO Raymond Carlsen.
In reality, the company is running dozens of projects in emerging markets and its experience would be fit for the market of Vietnam and expected to be successful in this market, Raymond Carlsen said in an interview with VITV.
Scatec is operating a series of projects in Asia including three in Malaysia, some in Bangladesh, some in Pakistan, and seeking opportunities in Indonesia. However, the investment in Vietnam is sizable, biggest among the aforementioned markets.
Secondly, Scatec covers all stages of a project regardless of financing (from its own capital) the project, developing it with the company’s partners, operating the plant, and maintaining it during the facility’s lifetime of around 20-25 years.
Operating all four phases makes Scatec unique and enables the company to better supervise the development process as well as manage risks, the CEO said in his visit to Vietnam in early July as part of efforts to step up the massive projects.
Thirdly, in terms of construction, it usually takes several years to build a thermal power plant but time required to complete a solar farm is around a year. It’s an advantage and Scatec can shorten the building process to soon operate in Vietnam, Raymond Carlsen said.
Fourthly, another reason supporting the projects is the Vietnamese government’s determination to develop renewable energy. Over the past few years, the government has put renewables one of the sectors the country is seeking investment in. Accordingly, state agencies are completing regulatory framework to facilitate the investment, more specifically the funding for the projects and suitable feed-in-tariff mechanism.
Fifthly, being an experienced multinational company, Scatec has built up effective partnership with local firms and cooperation with state agencies, mainly power grid operators to make the process smooth.
Ambitious plans
With 485 MW once put into operation, Scatec is expected to significantly contribute to Vietnam’s solar power capacity which is around 4,100 MW – 4,400 MW at the present.
Scatec’s goal is “coming to stay” in Vietnam for long. Therefore, it plans an ambitious plan which expects roughly 3,000 MW-3,500 MW to become operational in the next few years.
In a latest move, Scatec Solar has tied up with Vietnam’s EcoTech JSC through a deal inked several weeks ago to develop a floating solar or floating photovoltaic (FPV) project (an array of solar panels on a structure that floats on water) capacity 1,000 MW in Tri An district of the southern province of Dong Nai.
This is the world’s biggest FPV project, Raymond Carlsen said. The main factor behind the choice of the location of the mega project is that Dong Nai is home to Tri An Hydropower Plant, which has a big reservoir and a 500-kV grid which will facilitate the connection to the FPV farm.
Once the 485-MW project is kicked off, Scatec plans to partner with local firms to boost the localization rate as high as possible as well as cooperate with universities to offer training courses, fact trips, and site-based researches to their students.
Scatec would generate lots of jobs and their way will be early recruitment and early training for the first stage of the operations in Vietnam to ensure professionally-trained process, the CEO pledged.
Raymond Carlsen predicted that the demand for energy in Vietnam would be rising in the next decade and the country might need an additional 100GW for its consumption. Of the total, solar power, onshore and offshore wind energy would be significant.
To meet the demand, Vietnam should take advantages of renewable energy and plans energy export instead of power generation for domestic use, he recommended.
