Project Activities

Participants discussing at the workshop

Hanoi, 8th June 2017, under the framework of the "Low carbon technology assessment", the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Viet Nam and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) co-organized the "Sector-based stakeholders' workshop for low carbon technology assessment" for the energy efficiency and power generation sectors. The workshop had the participation of Vietnamese experts and specialists from ministries and organizations, corporations, and international experts.

For Power Generation sector, key discussion points can be summarized as follows:

On-going activities	WB and GIZ-supported projects on potentials of renewable energies for Vietnam.
List of proposed low carbon technologies in line with NDC	Biomass generation (E11): Direct burning of wood; Agricultural crops; Cogeneration equipment and Gasification; Small hydropower plants (E12): Reservoir, Dam, Water transfer channel, Run-of-river type for micro Hydro power plant; Wind power plants (E13 &E14): On-shore and Off-shore; Biogas power plants (E15); Sewage and agricultural material use; Coal power plants (E16): Ultra Super Critical technology; Solar PV power plants (E17): Rooftop mounted and Ground-mounted (Mega solar).
Technology assessment criteria	Economic performance GHG emission reduction Easiness of application Other environmental impacts Vietnamese contexts Others
Area of discussions
Supporting policies for RE development	Feed-in Tariff (FIT) revision for wind, solar and WTE power; Renewable Energies (RE) portfolio development by GOV is needed; Supporting polices for investors: tax, capital, administrative procedures; development of RE market, application of carbon tax. The necessity of calculation of the real (environmental, health etc.) cost of thermal coal power plants. Economic performance vs. Financial performance: how to integrate in project appraisal by authorities.
Technology list	What is the orientation to capture the change in technologies that might become outdated quickly (e.g. next 2-3 years)? Necessity of studies on scenarios with both solar and wind powers, and the one without both sources; Combination of solar and wind powers. Installation of solar cells suitable to Vietnam condition.
Technology assessment criteria	Because different criteria already in use, how to refine the criteria for each technology is important. Variability of cost: cost of upgrading existing power plant into more friendly ones. How to estimate of real costs of technology to the economy:  Availability of statistics on cost of non- RE and RE projects? Criteria for investor: profits Consider the O&M cost of RE (e.g. solar energy): e.g. solar batteries short life cycle. Short, medium and long-term criteria: forecast of fuel prices. Avoidable costs for non- RE projects: input coal price low, avoidable costs are low. Future price might be higher, leading to higher avoidable costs.

The next steps will be:

• To discuss the feasibility of application of the proposed technologies in the context of Viet Nam, taking into consideration of barriers in policies and technical aspects.
• To elaborate on the technology and action assessment criteria for prioritization and its application in Viet Nam.

The "Low Carbon Technology Assessment" was jointly launched by the Department of Climate Change (MONRE) and JICA under the "Project to Support the Planning and Implementation of NAMAs in a MRV Manner (SPI-NAMA)", with the main purpose of conducting technical assessment of mitigation measures for achieving the GHG emission reduction targets set out in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) submitted by the Government of Viet Nam to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).