Denmark pledges to support Vietnam in developing offshore wind power

Attending the reception on behalf of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment were Mr. Le Ngoc Tuan, Director of the Department of International Cooperation; Leaders of units: Vietnam Sea and Islands Administration, Department of Climate Change, Department of Legislation, Department of Environment and the Ministry Office.

On the Danish side, there were Mr. Niels Holst, Director of New Market Fund I - CIP Group Denmark; Mr. Robert Helms, Member of New Market Fund I - CIP Group Denmark; Mr. Stuart Livesey, General Director of CIP in Vietnam and representatives of the Danish Embassy in Vietnam.

img_0389(1).jpg — Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Le Minh Ngan talks with Mr. Nicolai Prytz, Danish Ambassador to Vietnam

At the beginning of the working session, on behalf of the leaders of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Deputy Minister Le Minh Ngan welcomed and greeted Danish Ambassador to Vietnam Nicolai Prytz; Mr. Niels Holst, Director of New Market Fund I, CIP Group and colleagues to work with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

The Deputy Minister especially congratulated the Prime Ministers of the two countries on the adoption of the Joint Statement on Green Strategic Partnership at the online meeting on the evening of November 1, 2023. Accordingly, the adoption of the Joint Statement will promote the participation of Danish enterprises in investment cooperation in green fields such as renewable energy industry, especially offshore wind power development commensurate with Vietnam's potential, thereby contributing to the implementation of the Political Declaration on the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) in which Denmark is a participating partner.

Deputy Minister Le Minh Ngan speaks at the meeting

According to Deputy Minister Le Minh Ngan, renewable energy development is a priority policy of Vietnam, in which offshore wind power is considered one of the breakthrough solutions for energy conversion and ensuring national energy security, which is closely related to marine spatial planning, especially identifying potential sea areas and rational zoning for offshore wind power development.

Accordingly, Resolution No. 55-NQ/TW dated February 11, 2020 of the Politburo on the orientation of Vietnam's national energy development strategy to 2030, with a vision to 2045, set out the general goal of "Firmly ensuring national energy security; providing sufficient, stable, high-quality energy at reasonable prices for rapid and sustainable socio -economic development, ensuring national defense and security, improving people's lives, and contributing to protecting the ecological environment.

In addition, Vietnam's official approval of the JETP declaration has opened up opportunities to promote the development of renewable energy, improve energy efficiency and focus on energy transition with a suitable roadmap, ensuring the goal of environmental protection, responding to climate change, but minimizing the cost burden, improving productivity, quality, efficiency of the economy and effectively solving social issues.

Mr. Nicolai Prytz, Danish Ambassador to Vietnam, spoke at the meeting.

Speaking at the reception, Mr. Nicolai Prytz, Danish Ambassador to Vietnam, affirmed that Vietnam is Denmark's leading important partner. Accordingly, after 10 years since the establishment of the Comprehensive Partnership, Vietnam and Denmark have developed dynamically and effectively in many areas such as politics - diplomacy, economy, development cooperation, energy, environment and climate change adaptation...

The Ambassador said that in recent times, the Danish Government has promoted investment in Vietnam in areas where Denmark has strengths and is consistent with Vietnam's sustainable development priorities such as renewable energy, processing industry, marine economy, and green growth. Within the framework of the Strategic Partnership on Energy, Environment, Green Growth and Climate Change Adaptation since 2011 and the newly established Green Strategic Partnership, the Prime Ministers of the two countries have recently committed to expanding cooperation towards green growth, contributing to realizing the efforts of the Vietnamese and Danish Governments in implementing the commitments to reduce net zero emissions at COP 26 and the United Nations' sustainable development priorities.

Appreciating the determination of the Vietnamese Government with a strong commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, Danish Ambassador to Vietnam Nicolai Prytz said that as a pioneer and world leader in offshore wind energy since 1991, Denmark is eager to share its experiences to support the Vietnamese Government in successfully initiating the offshore wind power industry, and is ready to introduce Danish investors with experience and capacity in the offshore wind power sector to invest in Vietnam.

“Offshore wind power is a great double opportunity for Vietnam: an opportunity to provide a green and cost-effective source of energy for the country’s strong economic development. As one of the countries that strongly and long-term supports Vietnam’s transition to a green and sustainable energy sector, Denmark expects the Vietnamese Government to soon issue a clear and consistent legal framework, which is essential for the development of the offshore wind industry,” emphasized Danish Ambassador to Vietnam Nicolai Prytz.

Introducing CIP Group, Mr. Niels Holst, Director of New Market Fund I, CIP Group said that CIP Group is one of the top 3 offshore wind power developers in the world and is the largest global investor focused on developing renewable energy based in Denmark. In the field of offshore wind power, CIP is one of the largest offshore wind power developers in the world with a portfolio of investment, development and construction of more than 38GW in many markets around the world such as the US, UK, Germany, Australia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, etc.

In particular, CIP Group is applying a sustainable project investment and development model, in which CIP always accompanies Cophengagen Offshore Partners (COP) - a unit established in 2015 to develop, manage the construction and operate offshore wind power projects specifically invested by CIP. Through this model, CIP-COP has achieved many great achievements in developing offshore wind power projects globally, especially in new markets.

With solid financial and technical capacity, as well as extensive experience in all stages of the offshore wind project development process, Mr. Niels Holst believes that the Group will have many prospects to cooperate with Vietnamese partners to successfully develop large-scale offshore wind projects (over 500 MW) in the country. These projects will create thousands of high-quality jobs, providing opportunities to participate in the wind power production chain for many domestic partners and suppliers.

Thanking the Ambassador and the Director of CIP Group for their sharing, Deputy Minister Le Minh Ngan said that the development of offshore wind power projects is still a relatively new issue for Vietnam, so the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is looking forward to having the opportunity to meet, work and learn from Danish experts to share experiences in offshore wind power development management. The specific contents that the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment lacks experience in and hopes to have the Ambassador and his colleagues share are the contents of wind power survey management, marine spatial planning, sea area allocation, etc.; developing criteria for selecting project developers with experience, capacity and clear commitment to the progress and quality of offshore wind power surveys; managing investors after being licensed for offshore wind power surveys.

Regarding the assessment of Vietnam's wind potential, Deputy Minister Le Minh Ngan said that the detailed calculation of wind potential in each locality or specific area requires more input information, especially information on high-altitude wind monitoring data and surface terrain characteristics data. Therefore, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment hopes that Denmark can support the monitoring to build a more complete and accurate wind potential database system.

The Deputy Minister learned that CIP Group has leading experience in investing in infrastructure development, and is currently managing the world's largest fund in the field of renewable energy and investing in wind power projects. The Deputy Minister was personally impressed with the achievements that the Group has made over the years and hopes that this visit will open up new cooperation opportunities between the two sides.

Deputy Minister Le Minh Ngan also assigned the focal units of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to review and propose specific cooperation in areas of mutual interest.

At the end of the meeting, Deputy Minister Le Minh Ngan once again thanked the Ambassador and his colleagues for taking the time to visit and work with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and wished the relationship between Vietnam and Denmark to become increasingly strong, achieving new developments in the future, contributing to further developing the relationship between the two countries in a deeper, more effective, stable, long-term and sustainable manner.

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