Wind power developers in central province rush construction to get incentive tariff

Under the scorching sun 800 workers are quickly building a solar plant in Huong Hoa District, hoping to finish the work before the rains begin next month.

Tai Tam – Hoang Hai will have 31 turbines, and the foundations have been completed for more than 20 of them. Five turbines are being installed, and the investors hope the farm will become operational by the end of October.

Then it will be eligible for the incentive feed-in tariff of 9.8 U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour for offshore projects and 8.5 cents for onshore.

A truck carries a part of a wind tower in Quang Tri Province. Photo by VnExpress/Hoang Tao

But the transport of equipment is facing issues.

Nguyen Van Nghi, deputy director of the project, said some households have built tall structures nearby hoping to get compensation to make way for the giant turbines.

"We need to speed up transportation to complete the project by the end of October, but if we do not pay high compensation local residents refuse to let us transport the equipment through their land.

So far around VND200 billion has been paid as compensation. The company is seeking help from authorities to get locals to remove their structures.

At two other wind power plants nearby, Phong Huy and Phong Nguyen, the foundations are complete but only four out of 24 towers have been built.

Nguyen Ngoc Tien, CEO of the projects, said he has increased the number of workers and even transports materials at night to finish the projects before the deadline.

It would take five to six weeks to finish, he added.

After that foreign experts will make any adjustments necessary before the plants can begin operations.

But with travel restrictions causing delays, wind power plant developers want Quang Tri authorities to allow experts to quarantine on-site upon arrival and start working immediately.

Quang Tri has 29 wind farms under construction with a total capacity of 1,117 megawatts and costing over VND30 trillion.

It is estimated that 16 of them will become operational before October 31.