To support 14 million households to install rooftop solar power, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said it needs 42,000 billion.

Total direct support for households could reach VND42,000 billion.

These are the policies proposed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade in the third draft of the Prime Minister's Decision regulating support policies for households installing self-produced, self-consumed rooftop solar power and electricity storage systems.

Previously, in the second draft, the Ministry of Industry and Trade proposed that households be supported with investment funds for self-use rooftop solar power systems with a maximum of VND500,000 for 1 kWp of installed capacity. However, the support amount shall not exceed VND2.5 million for a household. The expected application period is until January 1, 2031.

In addition, households can receive commercial loan interest support to invest in this energy system.

However, many comments suggested that the feasibility of the support level needs to be clarified. The Ministry of Finance cited data from the draft document, stating that the investment cost for a rooftop solar power system is about 12-15 million VND/kWp, equivalent to 60-150 million VND for a 5-10 kWp system, with an expected payback period of about 5 years.

Therefore, the direct support level of 500,000 VND/kWp (not exceeding 2.5 million VND/household) as initially proposed is not really clear on the calculation basis.

The Ministry of Justice also noted to consider the form of direct investment support in the process of investing in the installation of household solar power systems. Because the direct support level of 500,000 VND/kWp, if deployed on a large scale, will pose a challenge to the feasibility of balancing the budget and potentially pose a risk of waste and loss of funds in the management and payment process.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Science and Technology believes that the direct investment support level of VND 500,000/kWp, if deployed on a large scale (for example, developing 50 GWp of self-produced and self-consumed solar power according to the orientation), will require a very large state budget source, estimated at about VND 25 trillion.

This expenditure poses a major challenge to the feasibility of budget balance and carries the risk of waste and loss of funds during management and payment.

In response to comments, in the third draft, the Ministry of Industry and Trade made adjustments.

In the third draft, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has adjusted the regulation to support the cost of installing a solar power system from 1-1.5 million VND and add support for the cost of installing a battery storage system (BESS) from 1-1.5 million VND (with minimum conditions on installed capacity); support for loans to invest in a solar power system is 4 million VND/kWp, applicable to the capacity up to 5 kWp and the minimum BESS investment is 2 million VND/kWh, applicable to the capacity up to 10 kWh.

With about 28 million households nationwide, to achieve the target of 50% of households installing rooftop solar power for self-production and self-consumption according to the adjusted Power Plan VIII, the total direct support for the 2025-2030 period could be up to 42,000 billion VND, with each province needing to spend an average of about 250 billion VND/year. The Ministry of Industry and Trade believes that this figure is not too large compared to the local budget and will be balanced and arranged by the Ministry of Finance in the annual budgets of the provinces.

“ However, this support amount is the maximum, and the reality depends on local budget conditions and household installation needs ,” the Ministry of Industry and Trade emphasized, adding that this regulation applies to all households to ensure fairness.

In terms of efficiency, if each household installs an average of about 3 kWp, the annual electricity production can reach more than 50 billion kWh, equivalent to 16% of the country's electricity demand in 2024.

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/ho-tro-14-trieu-ho-lap-dien-mat-troi-mai-nha-bo-cong-thuong-noi-can-42-000-ty-ar960813.html