Vietnam’s national energy development plan does not include geothermal sources, but a senior official has said that it was time to study their potential in the country.
Vietnam’s national energy development plan does not include geothermal sources, but a senior official said that it was time to study their potential in the country (Photo: MONRE)
Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam’s national energydevelopment plan does not include geothermal sources, but a senior official hassaid that it was time to study their potential in the country.
Geothermal energy is heat energy generated and stored in theearth. It is said to be a clean, sustainable source.
Nguyen Linh Ngoc, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of NaturalResources and Environment (MoNRE), was speaking at a conference on geothermalenergy in the Asia-Pacific region held in the capital city on November 13.
Ngoc said that small-sized hydropower plants provide 70percent of the total country’s total energy output, leaving biogas/biomass adistant second at 14 percent, while renewable energy, including solar and wind energy,both account for about 6 percent.
Meanwhile, geothermal energy has remained a completeno-show. Feasibility studies were only recently conducted in the centralprovinces of Quang Binh and Quang Tri.
Ngoc said that energy production accounted for the releaseof 30 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, but in Vietnam, the figurewas more than 50 percent because of pollution from fossil fuels-based energyplants.
In 2015, at COP21, the UN Climate Change Conference inParis, Vietnam pledged to unconditionally cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 8percent by 2030 compared to business-as-usual (BAU) projections, or by up to 25percent if international support was forthcoming.
At the conference, experts and scientists from manycountries discussed direct use of geothermal power and ground-source heat pumps(GSHP), the benefits of geothermal energy and geothermal power production - andtechnologies for the treatment of geothermal reservoirs to enhance electricitygeneration.
The many socio-economic benefits of geothermal energy werealso highlighted, including energy security, improved ecology and lowemissions.
The conference was organised by the Vietnam Institute ofGeoscience and Mineral Resources and the Geothermal Implementing Agreement (IEAGeothermal).
IEA Geothermal, operating under the International EnergyAgency, aims to boost international co-operation on geothermal energyproduction and use.-VNA
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Vietnam’s national energy development plan does not include geothermal sources, but a senior official said that it was time to study their potential in the country (Photo: MONRE) 
