State-owned Vietnam Electricity, commonly known as EVN, the nation’s sole power distributor, is considering purchasing excess rooftop solar power from homes and offices for VND 671 or 2.6 cents per kilowatt hour. This would be limited to a maximum of 10 percent of the total power generated by small scale rooftop solar projects.
This move aims to encourage the installation of self-use rooftop solar power systems for easing financial costs, but not for business purposes or incentives as it had done earlier.
Notably, in 2017, to encourage renewable energy, the government implemented a mechanism to buy excess rooftop solar power at a preferential feed-in tariff price of 9.35 cents per kilowatt hour. This policy led to a significant increase in investments in rooftop solar power systems.
This policy, however, ended in late 2020 due to concerns about uncontrolled growth of rooftop solar power sources. This rapid expansion caused challenges in managing the national power grid and since the beginning of 2021, the signing of rooftop solar power purchase and sale contracts has been paused.
This latest proposal by the Ministry of Industry and Trade aligns with the goal of Power Development Plan 8 of having rooftop solar power installed on 50 percent of office buildings and 50 percent of residential houses by 2030.
See also: Electricity in Vietnam: Foreign Investor Cheat Sheet 2024