Norwegian energy firm, Equinor, which was looking at developing offshore wind in Vietnam, is set to close its office in Hanoi, Reuters has reported. It’s not clear why it has chosen to do so, however, Reuters does point out that several offshore wind farm developers have scaled back their operations due to delays to necessary regulatory reforms.
The potential for offshore wind in Vietnam has been well documented and plans to introduce six gigawatts by 2030 were detailed in the Power Development Plan 8. There are, however, a number of key challenges facing any sort or practical application, in particular the conflicting interests among several of Vietnam’s key ministries with respect to Vietnam’s Marine Spatial Plan.