After two rounds of FIT, Vietnam's rooftop photovoltaics have developed explosively in the past few years.
The first round of PV feed-in tariff subsidy policy, FIT1, was enacted in 2017 (Resolution 11/2017/QD-TTg) and expires in June 2019; the second round of feed-in tariff policy, FIT2, was enacted on 6 April 2020 (Resolution 13/2020/QD-TTg) and expires on 31 December 2020, with a subsidised tariff of 8.38 US cents/ kWh for rooftop solar sector.
However,as FIT2 ended on December 31, there is an urgent need for new policy. Due to the policy gap period,which has led to a halt in the development of PV projects in Vietnam, both centralised ground-mounted PV and distributed rooftop PV, from early 2021 until now.
It is known that, at the beginning of January 2022, many individuals and households with rooftop solar power systems received notices from electricity companies asking those owners and solar power investors must register as required. On March 9,Ministry of Planning and Investment of Vietnam issued Document No. 1438/BKHĐT-KTCN to provides specific guidance on registration issues,which is according to the “Regulations on Family Business Activities” promulgated by the Vietnamese government on January 4, 2021 (No. 01/2021/NĐ-CP), if the business activities are not regulated franchise businesses (Ministry of Industry and Trade regulations) and is in low income (provided by local people's committees ), the business registration is not require.
According to the "Regulations on the Issuance of Electric Power Business Licenses" issued by the Ministry of Industry and Trade on September 9, 2020, organizations and individuals engaged in solar power generation activities with the installed capacity of not more than 1 MW are exempted from applying for the power business license.
The draft of PDP8 has been approved by the Government Advisory Standing Committee and has been submitted to the Prime Minister for approval. According to the draft, the country's total power generation capacity is expected to reach 146,000 MW in 2030 and 352,000 MW in 2045. These include rooftop photovoltaics with a total capacity of about 7,755 megawatts, which will be installed by individuals and companies themselves, requiring local electricity companies under the Vietnam Electricity to continue to sign power purchase agreements with these projects. However, the final electricity price policy cannot be determined until the PDP8 is officially released.
According to the Draft Decision/2021/QD-TTg,the price for purchasing solar power of small roofs is shown as below:
Vietnam is extremely rich in solar energy resources,effective utilization of these resources can not only create economic benefits, but also contribute to Vietnam’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.
Looking forward to the continuous development of rooftop photovoltaics in Vietnam.
