At the reception, energy experts said Vietnam in general and HCMC in particular have huge potential to develop solar power. In recent years, Vietnam Government has paid a special attention to production of electricity from solar energy. WB has discussed and agreed to support Vietnam Government develop solar power in the coming time.

For HCMC, experts suggested to support HCMC to carry out the program of installing solar energy systems on rooftops and expanding it nationwide to achieve Vietnam’s target of 12GW till 2030.

Accordingly, WB will support HCMC to carry out an overall assessment of the benefits of installing solar energy systems on rooftops, providing technical support, training a highly-skilled team of energy experts, finding financial resources as well as equipment suppliers to implement the program.

Mr. Le Van Khoa said the program of installing solar power systems on rooftops in the city is suitable with renewable energy development strategy of Vietnam till 2030 and a vision to 2050 approved by the Prime Minister; it is also suitable with the current trend of many countries around the world on effective exploitation of national resources with environmentally friendly technology, reduction of use of fossil fuels.

Mr. Khoa affirmed that the city pays a special attention to development of renewable energy, including solar power, to ensure sustainable development of the city. He highly valued WB’s support and affirmed that the city would establish a working group to implement the program with WB.
 
In 2015, HCMC People’s Committee has started its pilot program on building support mechanisms for solar energy development and achieved some fruitful results such as generating 1MWp/year; launching financial/technical pilot model, 90 solar power outlets connected with national grid network with a total capacity of 1,5MWp and expected to reach 2MWp end of 2016. Currently, renewable energy accounts for 1% of total power consumption capacity of the city; it targets to achieve 1, 74% till 2020.
 

HCM CITYWEB