Waste-to-energy capacity in Power Plan VIII is still too small
In the submission to the Government requesting the issuance of the Plan to implement the VIII Power Plan, the Ministry of Industry and Trade proposed the scale of electricity production capacity from waste by 2030 in the North to be 493 MW, the North Central region to be 122 MW, the Central Central region to be 60 MW, the South region to be 448 MW... The total capacity of waste electricity in all regions is 1,212 MW.
This capacity, according to environmental experts, is very small compared to the actual needs and potential of waste-to-energy projects in Vietnam.
In Vietnam today, many provinces and cities are inviting bids and bidding to develop waste-to-energy projects such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Can Tho, Phu Tho, Hue, Da Nang, Khanh Hoa, etc. However, the draft Decision on promulgating the Plan to implement the national power development plan for the period 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050, submitted by the Ministry of Industry and Trade to the Government, shows that the electricity capacity of waste-to-energy projects is very low.
Even in some localities like Can Tho, the capacity of waste electricity is only allowed to be 15 MW, Tra Vinh is 10 MW, Da Nang is 15 MW... while the problem of waste treatment is a very painful story.
In fact, the current trend in waste treatment in Vietnam is the waste incineration technology for electricity generation because other types have not been successful or have not been successful and have left serious environmental pollution consequences. It can be said that landfill technology has been strongly opposed by local people, so it is impossible to develop more landfills. Conventional waste incineration as before, with outdated technology, has also failed.
“Nearly 90-100% of incinerators do not work or do not work effectively, causing air pollution, waste, smoke, insects, and odors. Composting technology is also ineffective because of the characteristics of Vietnam's household waste, which contains many chemicals such as shampoo, shower gel, salt, and food in unsorted trash bins, so composting or burying them is not guaranteed. This makes waste-to-energy incineration technology considered the most optimal in Vietnam today,” an environmental expert commented.
Environmental expert Hoang Duong Tung assessed: Currently, there are only a few technologies for waste treatment. In recent years, many localities have invested in many small-capacity incinerators.
Currently, the whole country has about 300-400 such kilns with an investment of about 2-4 billion VND/kiln, even less than 1 billion VND/kiln, made by Vietnamese manufacturers. These kilns do not meet emission standards, are of poor quality, and only operate for a short time before breaking down, many kilns even become garbage dumps.
Burning waste to generate electricity is a trend that needs to be encouraged.
In essence, waste-to-energy projects are not conventional commercial power generation projects, but with the main goal of environmental treatment (treatment of household waste). In addition to effective environmental treatment, heat recovery for power generation is also generated.
The treatment of domestic waste for the provinces is an urgent issue, related to social security. The government and ministries and sectors must support localities in this to avoid environmental pollution and reduce budget expenditure for waste treatment.
Referring to waste-to-energy technology, expert Hoang Duong Tung said that this is a good solution with some technologies that many countries have long applied to solve the problem of solid waste. They pay special attention to the treatment of dioxin and furan. For localities with a waste volume of several hundred tons per day, it is possible to build this type of furnace.
According to experts, waste incineration technology has many advantages. This is the most advanced technology today, saving waste treatment costs for localities, while utilizing energy from waste incineration; at the same time, achieving environmental protection efficiency. Any developed country uses waste incineration technology.
According to calculations, in localities such as Da Nang, Khanh Hoa or some other provinces, the amount of garbage collected by 2030 will be up to 1,800 tons/day and night, which means about 75 tons per hour, equivalent to about 40MW of electricity sent to the grid.
Therefore, the total capacity of waste-to-energy plants nationwide is at most just over 2,000 MW, insignificant compared to coal, gas, wind, solar, and other types of electricity.
So the question is: in this story, has the Ministry of Industry and Trade fully calculated the benefits for the provinces, especially ensuring environmental security and social security?
The leader of a department of industry and trade said: Prioritizing waste-to-energy is prioritizing environmental treatment (treatment of household waste). More importantly, the factory is located in the center of the provinces and cities, close to the place of electricity consumption, so the production and transmission costs are low. In particular, the revenue from electricity helps reduce costs and budgets for provinces and cities in waste treatment and environmental protection.
For the above reasons, waste-to-energy needs to be given attention, priority and capacity allocation for localities, so that localities have a basis to call for investment. For each province or city with a waste volume of over 1,000 tons/day, the capacity for waste-to-energy needs to be from 30-40 MW.
If the planning is less, in 2-3 years, a series of provinces and cities will have to apply for capacity expansion to build waste-to-energy plants, which will waste time, cost money, cause stagnation in local waste treatment activities, and affect social security.
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