Enterprize Energy first approached the Vietnamese government and the Communist Party of Vietnam with the concept of developing an offshore wind farm in 2017. Vietnam has a very good wind resource, a growing and youthful population, and a strong desire to modernise across the country.
Coupled with the Vietnamese internal policy to bring electrification to rural areas, a need to reduce coal imports and meet international environmental targets, the Thang Long OffshoreWind Farm is a critical power project in the Asia Pacific region.
Chairman Ian Hatton, being the first foreigner to address the Central Economic Committee of The Communist Party of Vietnam in 2019, demonstrated how the Thang LongOffshore Wind Development can help Vietnam achieve a lower levelized cost of energy, (LCOE).
Since 2017, the EE team is developing and refining our development plans, working with the Prime Minister and his office, national government ministries and the Communist Party of Vietnam. In 2019, EE submitted plans for the offshore wind development to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, (MOIT) for the Thang Long’s inclusion in the Vietnam National Development Plan. It is expected that notification of its inclusion will be in 2021.
In 2019, Enterprize Energy was notified of its success in obtaining offshore survey rights for the Thang Long development zone. EE has already deployed a fixed LiDAR on an offshore platform near to the development area and has been collecting wind data sinceQ3, 2019. EE has also prepared extensive plans to conduct both desktop and offshore site geotechnical and geophysical investigative survey works.
As EE work with the government and Party officials, we have hired and developed an experienced local team in Vietnam and developed local and regional supplier relationships to begin environmental impact assessment studies and engage with local stakeholders, such as those in the fishing communities.
In Q4of 2020, Enterprize Energy secured investment from a partner to co-invest in the Thang Long Offshore Wind Farm. With the new corporate investor now on board, EE is investigating opportunities for an ‘Energy Plus’ scheme to be incorporated with the offshore wind farm development.
