Plans to build a long-delayed coal power plant in Vietnam are moving forward 18 months after the country agreed to a multibillion dollar deal to move away from the fossil fuel.
The Song Hau 2 thermal power plant has signed a grid connection agreement with Vietnam’s main utility and secured a US$980 million ($1.32 billion) loan to purchase equipment, developer Toyo Ventures Holdings Berhad said in exchange filings on the Bursa Malaysia earlier this month.
The US$2.7 billion coal-powered project, which has been in development for more than a decade, would generate 2.1 gigawatts of power in the southern province of Hau Giang.
Vietnamese authorities and Toyo Ventures officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The project is progressing more than a year after Vietnamese officials signed a US$15 billion climate finance package with rich nations to help speed its transition away from coal, the most-polluting fossil fuel.
If the plant is built, it could put Vietnam in breach of that agreement, according to climate advocacy group Energy Shift Institute.
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As part of the deal, known as a “Just Energy Transition Partnership”, Vietnam promised to keep its headline coal generation capacity at 30.2 gigawatts by 2030, about 7 gigawatts less than what it had previously planned.
Given the nation’s current coal fleet and what’s already under construction, Song Hau 2 could push the country over that limit, said Christina Ng, managing director of Energy Shift Institute.
