The Italian Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam, is becoming greener thanks to a new solar power plant designed and built by the collaboration of a value chain of Italian renewable energy companies working in international markets. The lead partner in this initiative is Limes Renewable Energy - an Italian company specialising in the development and design of renewable energy projects at an international level, and which has one of its offices right in Hanoi, which has overseen the project that will mark the transition to renewable energy not only of the Italian Embassy in Hanoi but also of Casa Italia, a centre for the dissemination of Italian culture, language, products, and way of life in Vietnam.
The project, which follows an accurate analysis phase and a feasibility study, is called 'Ambasciata Verde' (Green Embassy) and is perfectly in line with the decarbonisation objectives that all countries must achieve. In this specific case, the use of solar energy, combined with the most innovative design technologies, will make it possible, once fully operational, to reduce the annual emissions of the buildings of the Embassy and Casa Italia complex and all the activities that operate within them.
The photovoltaic systems, located on the roofs of the buildings, will have a total peak power of 9.12 kWp through the installation of 24 FuturaSun PV modules with a unit power of 380 Wp, which will allow a reduction in emissions of over 5 tonnes of CO2 per year. This is a small but effective contribution of “Sistema Italia” (Italian system) to Vietnam's turn towards renewable technologies. Moreover, to disprove a commonplace that sees Italian renewable technologies and the supply chain as uncompetitive and with few industrial and design benefits, it should be noted that not only the conception and design but also the components, panels and inverters, as well as the installation and commissioning of the system will be handled by specialised Italian companies.
In detail, in addition to the role of Limes as promoter of the initiative and developer, the solar photovoltaic modules will be built in China, but by an Italian company, Futura Sun, founded in 2008 with the aim of combining the experience and knowledge of the Veneto photovoltaic district with the economic development opportunities of the Chinese market. The inverters will be supplied by SIEL, based in Milan, which produces and sells uninterruptible power supplies and components for solar photovoltaics. The project has been drawn up by SCS Ingegneria, based in Ostuni, Brindisi, an engineering company specialising in renewable energy that is present in Vietnam with its own branch and has also designed similar installations for the Italian Embassies in Abu Dhabi and Rabat. The installation will be carried out by BEC, a spin-off company focused on renewable energies of the BESTIANI group that has been operating for over 65 years in the field of Precision Mechanics.
Cristiano Spillati, Managing Director of Limes Renewable Energy said: "what we are talking about is a great little project that makes us proud not only because of the prestige of collaborating to make the Italian Embassy in Hanoi and Casa Italia greener and more consistent with the objectives of the energy transition, but also and above all because it fully represents an example of the application of our international spirit as well as know-how and ability to collaborate on a global scale with an interdisciplinary team that, from our different locations, operates in different markets such as Italy, Vietnam and Chile".
Spillati then concluded, 'we would like to thank the now former ambassador Antonio Alessandro and Francesco Arcuri, Head of the Embassy's Economic and Commercial Office, and all those who have collaborated in the success of this project in a country like Vietnam, which is also pursuing the path of renewable energy with great conviction.
Vietnam is more exposed to climate risks than almost any other country in the world.
At the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26), Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh announced the country's commitment to phase out coal-fired power generation by 2040.
Vietnam recently signed the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) with the G7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States), along with Denmark and Norway, an agreement to disburse $15.5 billion from the public and private sectors to help the country move away from coal-fired power generation.
Vietnam's recently published PDP 8 energy plan envisages the installation of around 18GW of new onshore wind power capacity, and in this regard Limes has already strategically positioned itself with a pipeline of over 1GW of wind power projects in the country, in addition to a pipeline of solar projects that could participate in the corporate PPA programme that Vietnam is setting up.