390 E. MOE
This also makes the need for energy storage more acute and moves
the focus from large thermal power plants to the managing, storage,
redistribution and consumption of variable two-way flows of electricity.
This is a major change, since as the authors write “the country’s energy
system was originally heavily shaped by the demand from large units
in the forestry, chemical and metal sectors, and respective electrification processes. Electricity distribution grids were devised to be one-way
roads towards consumption.” Of course, there will be some continuity
in the system. Nuclear power is an important baseload and will still be
accounting for a third of the power supply by 2030, but renewables will
contribute much variability, requiring the system to become far more flexible. One of the crucial points that the authors make is that this is not just
about changing technologies, but that this will lead to winners and losers,
and to transforming the field of stakeholders, especially with respect to
grid development and energy storage. This makes the processes more
complex, more opaque and harder to predict. Which also strikes at the
heart of this book, namely that the easy part of the renewable energy
transition is over. It is no longer about phasing in renewables as fast as
possible through support systems like FITs or RPSs and then letting the
actors in the market do the rest. It is now instead about realizing that
we have come far enough that further progress is contingent on major
improvements to the grid infrastructure, and that these changes go along
with political processes that are far heavier and involving far more actors
than the first phase of renewable expansion.
The remaining three are from East and Southeast Asia. Vietnam is the
only case of a developing country in this book (although a rapidly developing one). Thus, up until very recently, sustainable sources of energy
have been low on its list of priorities, with energy security and coal, gas
and large-scale hydropower the main focus of its energy policies. Nam
et al. however describe a country that while being in an early phase of
renewable expansion is very serious about renewables, and that has made
great strides in several areas.
Vietnam has great potential for wind power, both because of a
3000 km coastline and highlands with very good wind conditions. GWEC
(2019, 2020) estimates its technical offshore wind potential at 475 GW,
and 99 MW have already been installed. The country has a solid support
system and a generous FIT for offshore wind. Onshore, it has an 800 MW
target by 2020, which is unlikely to be reached as it had only installed
388 MW by the end of 2019. Solar PV is also very much in its infancy,
This also makes the need for energy storage more acute and moves
the focus from large thermal power plants to the managing, storage,
redistribution and consumption of variable two-way flows of electricity.
This is a major change, since as the authors write “the country’s energy
system was originally heavily shaped by the demand from large units
in the forestry, chemical and metal sectors, and respective electrification processes. Electricity distribution grids were devised to be one-way
roads towards consumption.” Of course, there will be some continuity
in the system. Nuclear power is an important baseload and will still be
accounting for a third of the power supply by 2030, but renewables will
contribute much variability, requiring the system to become far more flexible. One of the crucial points that the authors make is that this is not just
about changing technologies, but that this will lead to winners and losers,
and to transforming the field of stakeholders, especially with respect to
grid development and energy storage. This makes the processes more
complex, more opaque and harder to predict. Which also strikes at the
heart of this book, namely that the easy part of the renewable energy
transition is over. It is no longer about phasing in renewables as fast as
possible through support systems like FITs or RPSs and then letting the
actors in the market do the rest. It is now instead about realizing that
we have come far enough that further progress is contingent on major
improvements to the grid infrastructure, and that these changes go along
with political processes that are far heavier and involving far more actors
than the first phase of renewable expansion.
The remaining three are from East and Southeast Asia. Vietnam is the
only case of a developing country in this book (although a rapidly developing one). Thus, up until very recently, sustainable sources of energy
have been low on its list of priorities, with energy security and coal, gas
and large-scale hydropower the main focus of its energy policies. Nam
et al. however describe a country that while being in an early phase of
renewable expansion is very serious about renewables, and that has made
great strides in several areas.
Vietnam has great potential for wind power, both because of a
3000 km coastline and highlands with very good wind conditions. GWEC
(2019, 2020) estimates its technical offshore wind potential at 475 GW,
and 99 MW have already been installed. The country has a solid support
system and a generous FIT for offshore wind. Onshore, it has an 800 MW
target by 2020, which is unlikely to be reached as it had only installed
388 MW by the end of 2019. Solar PV is also very much in its infancy,