Creating a breakthrough for offshore wind power development

Commenting on the draft Resolution, delegates commented that if Vietnam sets a target of economic growth of over 10% of GDP from 2026 onwards, the demand for energy, especially electricity, will increase very rapidly. In that context, developing renewable energy, especially offshore wind power, is not only a trend but also an urgent requirement, one of the important pillars of the national energy strategy.

However, the implementation practice in recent times shows that offshore wind power development is facing many legal, mechanism and implementation organization problems. Among them, the 5 major groups of difficulties at present are: Marine spatial planning has not been approved synchronously, causing offshore wind power projects, although identified in the power sector planning, to still lack a solid legal basis for implementation. Overlapping and lack of consistency between planning types reduces the feasibility of the project.

In addition, there is still a lack of a clear, stable, attractive and long-term vision for offshore wind power pricing policy and mechanism to attract domestic and international investors. The pricing mechanism does not properly reflect the characteristics of the huge investment costs and high risks of this type of energy.

Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Vu Hong Thanh chaired the meeting. Photo: quochoi.vn

On the other hand, there is no complete and unified guidance on the order and procedures for leasing and allocating sea areas for surveying, researching, constructing and operating offshore renewable energy projects. This causes confusion for investors and prolongs the project preparation time.

For large-scale offshore wind power projects with very high investment capital, there is currently a lack of specific regulations on the order and criteria for selecting investors. Meanwhile, the initial survey costs are very high, and investors bear high risks if the selection mechanism is not clear and stable.

In addition, the authority to approve investment policies for offshore wind power projects is currently not really clear, leading to confusion in implementation, prolonging the time for processing documents, and slowing down the development of the entire sector.

From the above practice, delegates suggested that the draft Resolution should boldly design breakthrough mechanisms and policies, synchronous from legal to implementation organization, especially for offshore wind power.

Accordingly, it is necessary to soon build and promulgate a strong enough legal corridor, covering the entire project life cycle, from survey, handover and leasing of sea areas, to appraisal, approval, construction and operation. The legal framework must be stable, transparent, and predictable so that investors can confidently commit long-term capital.

Delegates also requested the Government to speed up the completion and approval of the marine spatial planning and related planning, ensuring consistency with the Power Development Planning, clearly identifying priority areas for offshore wind power development. Planning needs to be one step ahead to pave the way for investment.

At the same time, it is necessary to soon issue specific regulations on procedures for leasing sea surface, granting survey and research licenses for wind power development. Procedures need to be simple and clear in terms of authority, time limit, conditions, and avoiding overlap between management agencies.

View of the meeting. Photo: quochoi.vn

Delegates also proposed to develop a public and competitive bidding and auction process for project allocation and investor selection, with clear criteria on financial capacity, experience and technology. The process must ensure attracting capable investors while limiting the situation of "reserving" a project's share but not implementing it.

In addition to financial mechanisms such as green credit and investment incentives, there should be policies to encourage the localization of supply chains (pillar foundations, specialized ports, installation vessels, etc.) and the training of highly skilled human resources for the offshore wind power industry. This is an important condition to reduce costs and improve the competitiveness of domestic enterprises.

Regarding the encouragement of the private sector to participate in energy development, including offshore wind power, some delegates said that the draft Resolution still does not fully reflect the spirit of the Party's resolutions on the private economy.

Delegates said that in the context of the next 5 years, the total capacity of all types of power sources needs to reach about 2.5-3 times the current (equivalent to 190,000 - 254,000 MW), capital demand is up to 18-20 billion USD, then socialization and strong attraction of private resources is the "key" to success.

According to the delegate, some mechanisms and policies in the draft are still designed to give considerable priority to state-owned enterprises and their subsidiaries. Many incentives such as not having to auction land use rights, not having to bid to select investors, possibly skipping some planning steps, lowering criteria, etc. are mainly applied to this group of enterprises. If not reviewed and adjusted, it will create inequality, limit the motivation and opportunities of private enterprises, going against the view of developing the private economy into an important driving force of the economy.

Therefore, delegates suggested that the Government and the drafting agency continue to research and adjust related contents, ensuring an equal, transparent investment and business environment without discrimination between economic sectors; at the same time, there is a strong enough mechanism to encourage private enterprises to participate in investing in power grids, offshore wind power and large-scale energy projects.

Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien explains at the meeting. Photo: quochoi.vn

Explaining at the meeting, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien said that the drafting agency has closely coordinated with the review agency and the National Assembly Committees to review and revise the draft in accordance with the spirit of Resolution No. 66 of the Politburo. Contents under the authority of the Government will be specified in detail, instead of being assigned to ministries and ministerial-level agencies, in order to shorten the focal points and reduce the time for processing procedures.

Regarding the financial capacity conditions of enterprises, documents for approval of investment policies for offshore wind power projects, the mechanism for handling survey costs, procedures for receiving and processing documents, etc., the Ministry of Industry and Trade will continue to review and improve in a transparent and feasible direction, creating maximum convenience for investors while still ensuring strict management, etc.

(synthetic)

Source: https://baodaklak.vn/chinh-tri/202512/ky-hop-thu-10-quoc-hoi-khoa-xv-tao-dot-pha-cho-phat-trien-dien-gio-ngoai-khoi-7281633/