Trina Solar US has announced that its 6.5GW PV wafer manufacturing facility in Vietnam specifically designated to supply the US market will be online in mid-2023.
The G7 initiative JETP has agreed to support Vietnam’s green energy transition and mobilise an initial US$15.5 billion of public and private finance over the next three to five years.
Curtailment remains the most talked-about subject in Vietnamese solar, but potential solutions such as foreign investment in transmission and grid-based energy storage are being held back.
Two of the world’s major coal-based economies were expected to receive billions of dollars of funding at COP27 from a G7 initiative to wean them off coal and deliver clean energy transitions, but while Indonesia has walked away with a US$20 billion deal, talks have stalled on the US$5 billion set aside for its Southeast Asian neighbour Vietnam, leaving the G7 nations that deliver the funding scratching their heads.
Solar accounted for half of all global power generating capacity added last year, with 182GW deployed, a 25% increase on 2020, according to a report from BloombergNEF (BNEF).
Investment firm KKR has launched Aster Renewable Energy, a renewable platform aimed to develop, build and operate solar, wind and energy storage projects in Southeast Asia.
Vietnam has cut its 2030 power capacity target by 35GW under its newly agreed upon draft Power Master Plan VIII (PMP8) but is making more room for renewables as it seeks to reduce its reliance on coal.
