Vietnam has a huge potential when it comes to offshore wind energy. Findings from the cooperation between the Danish Energy Agency and the Vietnamese Electricity and Renewable Energy Authority show that Vietnam has a potential for 160 GW of offshore wind. Particularly where land is in short supply or where onshore wind speeds are not sufficient, offshore wind allows communities to access a clean, renewable and reliable electricity source.

The 3.5GW La Gan offshore wind farm will supply clean energy to a significant number of Vietnamese households and businesses. Over the project lifetime:

  • 250 TWh of energy is expected be generated
  • The wind farm is estimated power 7 million households
  • 130 million tonnes of CO2 emissions will be avoided
The development, construction and operation of the La Gan offshore wind farm will attract international investment, create opportunities for local companies and generate thousands of jobs in Vietnam.

The 3.5GW La Gan offshore wind farm will provide significant economic benefits to Vietnam. According to a detailed economic impact study performed by international experts BVG Associates, the La Gan project is projected to provide the following benefits over the project lifetime:

  • The project is expected to contribute over 4 billion USD to the Vietnamese economy.
  • The project is expected to create 45,880 full time equivalent (FTE) jobs, where 1 FTE is defined as 1 full time equivalent job for 1 year.
  • The total Vietnamese content is projected to be 44.1% across the full supply chain

The most significant contributions are from the development of the wind farm, foundations supply, onshore transmission supply and operations and maintenance. In all these areas Vietnam has strong expertise, meaning that local suppliers can be utilised more heavily.

Job categories across the supply chain

  • Project management
    10%
  • Wind turbines
    6%
  • Foundations
    10%
  • Electrical cables
    1%
  • Electrical substations
    17%
  • Ops infrastructure
    3%
  • Installation
    12%
  • Operations
    35%
  • Decommissioning
    6%

13 leading companies active in the Vietnamese market have supported the La Gan project’s economic impact study

To verify their analysis, BVG Associates interviewed 13 companies active in the Vietnamese offshore wind supply chain. These companies were chosen for their expertise, track record and practical Vietnamese experience. The companies, categorised according to their main area of expertise, are shown in the figure below.

Surveys
and studies

Turbine
supply

Installation
and commissioning

Balance of plant supply
(foundation, cables, substations)

A common theme of the study is that Vietnam has a skilled engineering workforce with expertise in shipbuilding and oil and gas, which can easily be utilised and re-skilled for offshore wind. While there are no jack-up vessels operated by Vietnamese companies, there are other heavy lift vessels from the oil and gas industry which could be used for foundation and substation installation in the future.

As the La Gan project is being installed across a number of years, it is likely that there will be more opportunity to use Vietnamese suppliers for the later years, as the offshore wind market grows. It is expected that some items will always be imported, such as turbine components. However suppliers have indicated that further factory investments are likely. Such factory investments will increase the expertise in Vietnam and could kick start other areas of the supply chain in the wider offshore wind industry. This will further improve local content projections for the La Gan project.

Read an extract of our economic impact study report here.