VietNamNet Bridge – Solar energy is expected be used provide clean water supply in southern rural areas, where the national electricity grid still cannot reach.
Reviewing the results of a renewable energy project, Pham Van Quynh, deputy director of the Can Tho provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said solar energy had proved to be an effective solution to ensuring a sufficient supply of water to rural areas.
The energy is used to power water-supply stations’ pumping systems, which bring clean water to households in rural areas.
The success of the project has cleared up doubts about using solar energy instead of electricity from the national grid.
Some analysts had warned that water supply would be unstable because it would depend on the weather and solar energy needed to run pumps.
Quynh said the biggest problem in the water supply in rural areas is electricity outages, which leave pumps idle. As a result, though major water supply stations exist, water cannot reach every household.
“With the solar energy system, local people can be sure they can have enough water for daily use and irrigation,” he said.
Le Thanh Hai from Grundfos Vietnam noted that the solar energy system can produce electricity like a power plant.
Hai pointed out the many advantages of a water supply system powered by solar energy. It can help save electricity usage, and as it generates power, there is no need to build power plants, especially coal-run thermopower and hydropower plants.
The Nhon Ai Water Supply Station in Can Tho City, for example, is designed to supply 50 cubic meters per day.
The solar energy system can supply 46 cubic meters per day (54 cubic meters per day in sunny season and 38 cubic meters in rainy season).
Hai said the water supply capacity was “satisfactory”: it is higher than the designed capacity in the sunny season and lower in the rainy season.
However, in the rainy season, locals can collect rainwater to offset the decrease in water supply from water stations.
It is still unclear if the solution can be utilized on a large scale in the Mekong Delta. The biggest disadvantage of the solution is the high initial investment.
Hai said that pumps and solar panels alone would cost VND300-400 million for a system supplying water to 150-300 households.
Regarding capital sources, Nguyen Kim Quy from the Danish Embassy in Vietnam said the Danish government in some countries was operating a programme that provides preferential loans to fund clean energy projects.
The borrowers must prove that their projects have investment capital of between 5-50 million euros, and they must be guaranteed by the Ministry of Finance.
TBKTSG