English In the context of many groups of imported goods falling sharply or growing moderately due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, production stalled, but imports of coal products increased sharply by nearly 50%.
Coal imports increased by 12 million tons
Data from the General Department of Customs and the General Statistics Office shows that, in July, Vietnam imported 4.4 million tons of coal of all kinds with a total value of 294 million USD. Accumulating 7 months of this year, the whole country has imported nearly 36.5 million tons of coal with a turnover of 2.6 billion USD, while the same period last year imported only about 24 million tons. Notably, in the traditional markets where Vietnam is importing coal such as Indonesia, Russia, Australia, China..., the price of coal imported from China is always the highest. The average price of imported coal in the past 7 months from Indonesia is about 1.1 million VND/ton, the average import price of all markets is also about 1.6 million VND/ton, while coal imported from China is 6.2 million VND/ton, 4 times higher than the average price. In 2019, according to data from the General Department of Customs, the whole country imported 43.85 million tons of coal, equivalent to 3.79 billion USD, an increase of nearly 92% in volume and an increase of more than 48% in turnover compared to 2018 .
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnam is forced to increase coal imports in large quantities due to the increasing demand for coal for thermal power plants.
Meanwhile, the amount of coal mined in the country is increasingly difficult and costly due to the fact that it has to be mined in depth, leading to low efficiency.
Energy expert Dr. Tran Van Binh (Germany) said that according to Vietnam's Power Plan 7, thermal power plants, BOT power plants or power plants in industrial parks and export processing zones are allowed to buy coal to service service for electricity production of NM.
So it is normal that these factories can find cheap coal sources to serve production. “The production of imported coal has increased sharply in the past few years in proportion to the number of thermal power plants that have 'sprung up' in Vietnam. With 24 coal power plants, of which 20 are using boiler combustion technology using low-quality bran coal and spray coal, in general, coal power plants mostly use low-quality, cheap coal to operate. That's not counting dozens of thermal power plants in industrial parks, processing zones... That's why coal electricity is cheap. It sounds very economic at first, but it is also a "tragedy" for the development of our electricity industry. Because thermal power plants are using outdated technology, old technology, frankly, waste technology from advanced countries to operate", Dr. Binh commented and affirmed that one thing he said was "not new". ”, that we make cheap electricity for economic development and are paying the price by breathing polluted air every day.
Stop developing new thermal power plants
On August 14, at a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and other ministries on the national electricity development plan for the period of 2021 - 2030, with a vision to 2045 (Power planning 8), The Institute of Energy - the consulting unit on the construction of Power Plan 8 also summarized the results of the implementation of Power Plan 7 up to now, reaching 93.7% of the total capacity set out in the plan.
In which, coal power reached 57.6% while renewable energy jumped up to 205% of the plan. In particular, the new plan envisages reducing the proportion of thermal power plants from 42% to 36% in 2025 and about 31% in 2045. In the period of 2020 - 2030, the possibility of not developing more coal power projects will be taken into account. new projects in addition to the projects already in the Power Plan 7.
Dr. Phung Duc Tung, Director of the Mekong Development Research Institute, said that it is better to stop developing new projects sooner rather than just "considering the option" of stopping but lasting for the next 10 years. He said that China currently has a policy not to develop thermal power, South Korea also plans to close 15 NM last year, Japanese investment funds also announced that they would not support loans for thermal power projects. new.
The number of 16 contractors who purchased documents to join Vietnam's thermal power plants under the Power Plan 7 all came from China, proving that there is a "wave" of relocation of thermal power plants from China to neighboring countries. Therefore, Vietnam in Power Master Plan 8 also needs to come up with a stronger plan to minimize thermal power and accelerate renewable energy. At that time, in attracting foreign investment, Vietnam also had an advantage when investors looked at Vietnam with a sympathetic view for the environment...
According to Dr. Phung Duc Tung, the results of electricity production according to the Power Plan 7 show that the development of renewable energy is strongly outperforming. This is the foundation for the Power Master Plan 8 to aim to increase and decrease the ratio with coal power. Pressure from interests of groups, investors ... may not allow us to give up thermal power at this time, but it is necessary to make recommendations that are not encouraging and stricter in issuing new licenses.
Second, accelerate the development of infrastructure for solar and wind power. The plan is to get rid of the monopoly on electricity generation of Vietnam Electricity by 2025. Third, the planning must be incorporated into the nuclear power development strategy. The technology to develop nuclear power is now much advanced, the probability is not safe
The damage we are worried about will be extremely low compared to the dangerous harm to the environment because we have to inhale exhaust fumes from coal power plants every day.