The country wants to shift away from coal.
In an interview with Reuters, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that Vietnam is aiming to reduce its coal use by 40 million tons and more than triple the amount of electricity produced from renewable resources by 2030.
The country wants to “increase the electricity output produced from renewable sources from approximately 58 billion kWh (kilowatt hours) in 2015 to 101 billion kWh by 2020, and 186 billion kWh by 2030,” Phuc said.
In order to achieve such a goal, Vietnam plans to push solar energy usage and utilize the abundance of its rare earth resources — which amount to roughly 20 million tons and can be found mostly in Lai Chau.
Specifically, the country aims to increase household solar energy use to 12% by 2020 and to 26% by 2030. Solar energy is also expected to account for 1.6% of the country's total power production by 2020 and 3.3% by 2030.
As for the plan for rare earth development, Vietnam wishes to "cooperate in research and development and transfer of advanced technologies in mining and in-depth processing of rare earth in order to create high value-added and environment-friendly products," Phuc stated.
As Vietnam is running low on oil and gas — two of its major energy sources — finding different renewable and sustainable sources becomes more important. While hydroelectricity is the country's main source of renewable energy, its potential has been fully met.
[Photo via Brink]
