Vietnam’s first offshore wind turbines ready for generation

Bac Lieu-based Cong Ly Construction-Trade-Tourism Ltd Co has completed the installation of two sea wind turbines along Bac Lieu Province’s coastline as part of Vietnam’s first offshore wind farm.

The first of the wind power tower, complete with titan steel turbine, weighing 210 tonnes and standing 90 m went up on May 24th 2012, followed by the second one within a week. Each turbine has a capacity to produce 1.6 MW.

The company’s assistant general director Nguyen Thang Long said the installation was carried out by US firm GE, which has been manufacturing turbines at its turbine generator plant in the northeastern city of Hai Phong since 2010.

“This is phase one of the Bac Lieu project, which will be made up of ten turbines along the 20 km section on Can Thanh beach,” he says, adding that the remaining eight will be up by September and connected to the national grid.

The second phase will lead to a total of 62 turbines with a capacity of just over 99.2 MW with the ability to generate 56 million kWh per year.

Duong Quang Loc, director of the management board of the Bac Lieu Province Wind Power Plant Project, says this is the first wind power project to be implemented by Cong Ly along the 62 km coastline of Bac Lieu Province.

“The project has been made possible with a US$200 million loan from the US Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im Bank),” he says. When completed within the next four years, the project will generate a combined output capacity of 300 MW.

In March this year, the company asked for approval from the Ho Chi Minh City government to carry out a 200 MW wind power project in the city’s outlying coastal district of Can Gio with an investment capital of 10 trillion dong (US$480.3 million).

If the project gets the nod, Cong Ly Ltd will have 125 offshore turbines installed by GE along a 20 km section on Can Thanh beach.

“This will be the first large-scale industrial/energy project in Bac Lieu Province,” says To Hoai Dan, chairman of Cong Ly Ltd.

Country executive for GE Energy in Vietnam Nguyen Xuan Thang says wind energy also provides an alternative to Vietnam’s reliance on hydropower as a cleaner source of energy and aligns with the government’s vision (under its Master Electricity Plan VII) to generate 5% of the country’s electricity from renewable sources by 2020, and 9% by 2030.