BNN Bloomberg, Canada's business news network reporting on finance and markets, has recently published an article highlighting the extraordinary 100-fold increase in solar power that has taken place in Vietnam over the last two years.
Vietnam now ranks seventh in the world in terms of capacity, according to clean energy research group BloombergNEF. (Photo: VNA) - BNN Bloomberg, Canada's business
news network reporting on finance and markets, has recently published an
article highlighting the extraordinary 100-fold increase in solar power that
has taken place in Vietnam over the last two years.
The Southeast Asian nation now ranks seventh in the
world in terms of capacity, according to clean energy research group
BloombergNEF, and in 2020 the only countries that installed more solar panels
were the US and China, the article said.
“I have never
seen a country explode like this in solar,” Logan Knox, Chief Executive of
Vietnam operations of UPC Renewables, which builds and operates wind and solar
farms across Asia, was cited by BNN Bloomberg. “It’s almost unbelievable.”
Vietnam is an encouraging sign that global efforts to
discourage the use of fossil fuels and boost the accessibility of clean
alternatives are bearing fruit, the article said.
The government turned to the solar industry a few
years ago as a growing number of power shortages threatened to sap its economic
momentum. Years of rapid growth meant surging electricity demand from factories
built by multinational giants including Samsung Electronics Co. and suppliers
for Apple Inc.
A plan to meet that with an ambitious fleet of coal
power plants has fallen behind schedule, due in large part to push-back from
local leaders concerned about air quality and financing difficulties as global
banks stopped lending for the dirtiest energy source.
That same shift to clean energy needs to happen in
more developing countries if emissions worldwide are to be zeroed out by
mid-century—a timeline needed to avoid catastrophic global warming, the article
noted./