The prime minister of communist Vietnam, Phan Van Khai, has allowed the creation of a US$342m hydro-electric plant to cater for the country’s increasing demand for electricity, according to a state official.
The Ninh Binh 2 project, to be located in the province of Ninh Binh, will have a capacity of 300MW and use water from the River Day. Construction will begin next year and should be completed by 2008.
The Vietnamese government says the country will be short of around eight billion kilowatts of electricity by 2015, with the figure rising to between 35 billion and 60 billion by 2020.
Electricity of Vietnam, the state-owned utility, has planned to construct 32 power stations between 2003 and 2010. Twenty of these are likely to be hydro-electric plants.