View of Dong Hai I Wind Power Plant in the southern province of Tra Vinh (Photo: VNA) According to Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Sinh Nhat Tan,hydrogen has been recognised as a clean and indispensable energy source in theenergy structure of many countries to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality by2050.
As of early 2023, more than 40 countries have issued national hydrogenstrategies and major financial support policies to form and develop thehydrogen industry. In particular, the EU aims to produce green hydrogen toaccount for 13-14% of the bloc’s energy structure by 2050 while Japan and theRepublic of Korea target to develop clean hydrogen, including green hydrogenand blue hydrogen, respectively, to account for 10% and 33% in their nationalenergy structure by 2050.
In Vietnam, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is drafting aHydrogen Production Strategy and deploying gas power and offshore wind powerprojects according to the Politburo’s Resolution No. 55-NQ/TW on the strategicorientation of Vietnam’s national energy development until 2030 with a visionto 2045 and Decision No. 893/QĐ-TTg on the National Energy Master Plan for the2021-30 period with a vision to 2050.
Under the draft strategy, Vietnam will promote the development of hydrogen energyproduction and hydrogen-derived fuels in potential areas to target a hydrogenoutput of 100,000-500,000 tonnes by 2030 and 10-20 million tonnes by 2050.
According to the Vietnam Petroleum Institute (VPI), the cost of producing cleanhydrogen (including blue hydrogen and green hydrogen) until 2025 will still bevery high. Specifically, the production costs of blue hydrogen and greenhydrogen in Vietnam are still 1.3 and 2.1 times higher than grey hydrogen(hydrogen is produced with fossil fuels such as natural gas or coal andaccounts for about 95% of the world's hydrogen production).
For clean hydrogen to develop and gradually improve in Vietnam, theimplementation of the Government’s supportive policies is necessary to ensurethe competitiveness of clean hydrogen sources.
Specifically, the support policies for hydrogen development needto reduce risks to investors by including hydrogen in the national energyplanning to create a legal framework and priority list for hydrogen developmentprojects and related fields.
Besides implementing preferential tax rate policies, theGovernment should also develop technical standards and safety regulations toensure synchronous development of the hydrogen value chain.
In addition, the support policies need to create demand forhydrogen in the national economy, such as financial support for infrastructuredevelopment projects serving the development of the hydrogen value chain andCO2 tax application to increase competitiveness for clean hydrogen.
With the advantage of production network and supply chain in greenhydrogen development, Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PVN) has participated in theprocess of planning strategies and policies to create the necessary legalframework for the development of green hydrogen.
According to General Director of PVN’s Vietnam Petroleum TechnicalServices Joint Stock Corporation (PTSC) Le Manh Cuong, the current cost ofoffshore wind power production in the world is still generally high. However,building offshore wind farms associated with synchronous development of greenhydrogen production will be effective. Therefore, besides the efforts ofenterprises, the Government needs to soon have a specific mechanism to developoffshore wind power and wind power associated with green hydrogen production.
In addition, for industries which domestic enterprises have enough capacity tomeet market requirements, the Government should have specific regulations onproduction origin in Vietnam to qualify for incentives, which will contributeto supporting domestic enterprises to develop and improve capacity. This isalso the way many countries are implementing./.
VNA
