With the Year of the Snake underway, Vietnam is pursuing numerous ambitious projects across multiple industries. The energy sector is no exception, with the high-profile renewed campaign for nuclear energy grabbing headlines and the revised National Power Development Plan 8 (PDP8) providing more room for solar and onshore wind development.
Striving for Nuclear Energy
In 2016, the National Assembly canceled two planned nuclear power plants in Ninh Thuan Province due to cost concerns. At the time, Russia and Japan were expected to support the development of one plant each, but the expected budgets kept growing.
This also aligned with a global downturn in interest in nuclear energy in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan.
Almost a decade later, nuclear energy is back in vogue internationally as countries strive to decarbonize their base-load power systems and reduce emissions.
In that context, the National Assembly approved the resumption of nuclear energy planning – specifically the two Ninh Thuan plants – late last year. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has since hit the accelerator on these ambitions, ordering that both plants be completed by December 31, 2031, at the latest.
EVN has been named the Ninh Thuan 1 Nuclear Power Plant investor, while PetroVietnam will hold this role for the Ninh Thuan 2 Nuclear Power Plant.
These plants are expected to produce a combined 4,000 MW of energy once online, though Vietnam will need substantial foreign technical and financial assistance to reach that stage. This month, government stakeholders are expected to hold talks with partners, including Russia, Japan, South Korea, France, and the United States.
Russia appears to have one foot in the door already: in January, Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy company Rosatom signed a nuclear energy cooperation agreement with EVN.
Currently, the expected cost of these projects is unknown, as are technical details such as the types of reactors that will be used.
Revising PDP8
More broadly, the Vietnamese government is revising PDP8 to integrate nuclear energy and make other adjustments based on current progress – or, in some cases, lack thereof.
The latest draft of the revised PDP8 in late February proposed to increase solar power capacity dramatically to 34,000MW, an increase of more than 25,000MW compared to the previous plan. Additionally, pumped storage hydropower and battery storage are proposed to increase six-fold from 2,700MW to 15,250MW. This helps raise the solar power ratio from only 5.7% of the power structure to 16% when adjusting the planning.
Giles Cooper, a Hanoi-based partner at Allens and energy expert, wrote on LinkedIn: “Progress is accelerating on revising Vietnam’s PDP8, which is positive. Although the process is far from complete, it’s not a surprise to see utility-scale solar make a comeback in the draft revised targets to 2030 given delays developing offshore wind and LNG projects and the continual growth in energy demand. Developers need to be poised for a kick off in new greenfield project development (particularly onshore wind) in the coming months.”
The most significant downward revision to the existing PDP8 is for offshore wind, which has been reduced to zero installed capacity through this decade, down from 6 gigawatts. Offshore wind is arguably the most troubled of Vietnam’s planned energy generation sources, as regulations governing seabed surveying to build wind turbines still have not been completed. The development of this sector has been pushed to the 2030s.
Over the past two years, foreign wind power companies, including Orsted, have paused development or exited Vietnam entirely.
New Decrees Boosting Renewable Energy
To further accelerate its clean energy transition, the Vietnamese government issued two new decrees, Decree 57/2025 and Decree 58/2025, effective March 3, 2025, aimed at boosting renewable energy development and market liberalization.
Decree 57/2025 introduces the Direct Power Purchase Agreement (DPPA) mechanism, allowing large electricity consumers to buy power directly from renewable energy producers. Decree 58/2025 further strengthens the renewable energy landscape by incentivizing the development of solar, wind, hydrogen, and battery storage.
These all come amid fast-rising demand for electricity, which is growing by at least 10% annually. Last October, PM Chinh demanded no power shortages in 2025 under any circumstances while noting the importance of energy infrastructure for further economic growth.
The power shortages that hit northern Vietnam in the summer of 2023 negatively impacted the country’s image in the eyes of foreign investors, and officials have gone to great lengths to avoid a repeat. A stable power supply is especially important as the government strives to draw further investment in energy-intensive sectors like semiconductors and artificial intelligence.
As ever, it’s an exciting time to follow the country’s fast-evolving energy picture.
Writing credit Michael Tatarski