Vietnam has announced their aim to be able to produce 100,000-500,000 tonnes of hydrogen every year by 2030. The country will be able to start working towards this goal, now the plans they have developed for it have been approved.

The country has a well-mapped out hydrogen energy development strategy, which aims at setting Vietnam on course for producing 10-20 million tonnes of hydrogen annually. The country will use renewable energy and carbon capture to help them achieve this hydrogen production goal by 2050.

This plan was revealed in Hanoi on the 22nd of February and it has been noted that the ambitious hydrogen output will displace some natural gas, plus coal that is used in power plants by the year 2030. The other aim for this project is for the energy carrier to be utilised for transport, fertiliser, steel and cement.

It has been agreed that this project will be made possible through both private and public funds and it has been mentioned that part of this funding is expected to come from the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JTEP), who is a G7-backed financing scheme.

The Government’s hope for this project is that it will allow hydrogen to account for 10% of the country’s electricity generation. This will align with the project’s main goal, to meet Net Zero by the mid-century. Along with this goal, the overarching goal of the project is to pave the way towards developing Vietnam’s hydrogen ecosystem across sectors such as production, transportation, storage, distribution and domestic use and export.

One way Vietnam is considering encouraging investments into this project, is to incentivise fossil fuel users to ‘actively convert’ to the production and use of technology, by developing specific mechanisms which will draw the attention of a wider array of companies.

The companies behind this project, commented that ‘the strategy sets out plans to develop and supplement regulations on renewable energy development to establish a “solid, transparent and favourable legal foundation [that] creates momentum for the sustainable development of new and renewable energy.”