Waste-to-energy projects help curb greenhouse gas emissions
Ho Chi Minh City’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Department of Industry and Trade and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) jointly organised a conference on technology and finance for waste-to-energy projects on April 11.
Le Van Tam, Deputy Director of the Vietnam Institute of Tropical Technology and Environmental Protection, said that Vietnam currently has about 20 waste-to-power projects. However, only three factories have been put into operation.
Policy-relating barriers make it difficult for waste-to-power plant projects to attract investors due to their low efficiency. These projects run at only about 20-25% efficiency, which is much worse than investment in thermal power plants (from 40 – 42%). Meanwhile, the investment cost of a waste-to-power plant is very large and it takes 10-20 years to get the investment back.
