Five years ago, facing with the need to save electricity to cut down power expense, Sai Gon Morin Hue Hotel – a four starred hotel in Thua Thien – Hue decided to replace the electrical water heaters with heaters using solar energy, although this type of product had not been very popular in the city back then.

Next week, Kim Dinh Green Energy JSC (Ho chi Minh City) will start installing 50 solar energy lamp posts on the road from Dinh Bo Linh – Thai Sanh Hanh T-junction to Dinh Bo Linh – Highway 50 junction, which has an approximate length of 1 km. Kim Dinh Corporation partially sponsor the installation cost.

Engaging in the program of cleaner production and energy efficiency in industry of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, annually, the company saves billions of dong thanks to technical improvements, energy saving and environmental protection by a series of measures: internal management, lighting system improvement, and equipment replacement.

This program is part of the project "Piloting the economical and efficient use of energy in households" implemented in 10 districts of Hanoi. The project is scheduled to begin in 2010.

Passing 18 profiles from 6 countries in the region including Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Singapore, Ana Mandara Resort (Da Lat) won the first prize of "Tropical Building" in the competition "Energy efficiency Building and Energy Management System ASEAN 2010 " organized by Southeast Asian Center of Energy (ACE).

With a gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of approximately 12.67% and rapidly growing commercial activities, Da Nang is considered to be a major energy consumer, where situate many key industries. To reduce production and energy costs, Da Nang has very soon participated in Energy Efficiency projects and programs, initially proving to be effective.

The Tien Dat Mui Ne Resort in Binh Thuan Province, 200km north of Ho Chi Minh City, is a wonderful place with the blue sea, white sand dunes and green coconuts. The resort recently received a second prize for being a tropical building from the contest “2010 Energy Efficient Building”, an event held annually by the ASEAN Center of Energy (ACE).

Operating under the General Department of Logistics, the Hong Ha Shipbuilding Company, which specializes in building and repairing means of marine transport, has applied many energy conservation methods. The company has undergone 14 years of development and become a big business of Hai Phong City in the field of shipbuilding with the annual production value of more than 550 billion.

FOCOCEV Joint Stock Company in Quang Nam (Que Cuong Commune, Que Son District,) is an enterprise producing tapioca from fresh cassava. Since the typical characteristic of cassava starch factories is manual processing, wasted raw materials brought serious environmental consequences.

That is precise data calculated on actual energy consumption for lighting of Vietnam announced by Dr. Vu Minh Mao, Chairman of Vietnam lighting association at the seminar "Effective Lighting and Energy Conservation "held in Ha Long City, Quang Ninh.

The strategic objectives of the Program (issued under Decision 158/2008/QD-TTg by the Prime Minister) is to assess the extent of the impact of climate change on different areas, sectors and localities under each period, in order to build feasible action plans to successfully cope with climate change both for long term and short term.

On July 26th, under the chairmanship of Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai, the Steering Committee of the National Target Program on Energy efficiency and conservation had a meeting to evaluate the performance of Phase I of the Program (2006-2010) and to propose upcoming contents for phase II (2011-2015).

With active involvement of many ministries, industries, localities, businesses during the period 2006 – 2010, the National Target Program on economical and efficient use of energy has achieved very commendable first results, saving a total of 3.2% of the national energy consumption amount (the target was to save from 3% to 5%). There are, however, many difficulties ahead to attain the target of saving from 5% to 8% in the next period 2011 – 2015.

The use of conventional energy such as fuel-wood and charcoal in rural and mountainous areas in our country has reduced the forest area and increased the amount of CO2 emission. Meanwhile, modern energies like electricity, gasoline, petroleum are becoming more and more costly, unaffordable for people in remote areas. A positive solution is to use biogas – an in-place and cheap energy source for farmers.

In 1995, Ha Long Brick factory stopped operating because the circular kiln technology was obsolescent. The company switched to operate Tieu Giao Brick factory with tunnel furnace technology granted by Bulgaria. With two tunnel furnaces using dust coal, work conditions and product quality were improved but still at a low level. The company decided to dismantle Ha Long Brick Factory to try the new technology: dry crushing – plastic extruding – quick drying to produce high quality tile.

With the theme: “Energy and climate change”, at the AMEM 28, representatives of 10 ASEAN countries, Deputy secretary of ASEAN and 8 partner countries including China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Russia and the US acknowledged the results of 2009-2010 activities.

With the theme “Energy and Climate Change”, the 28th ASEAN Ministers of Energy Meeting (AMEM 28) has reflected the determination and spirit of ASEAN members in 2010 and years to come.

In the afternoon of 21st July, Senior Officials Meeting on Energy of ASEAN + 3 passed the draft agenda and the content of cooperation of AMEM +3 in preparation for the official opening of the 28th ASEAN Meeting of Energy Ministers, on 22nd July.

All the incidents at the new coal-run thermopower plants in northern Vietnam have been resolved and these plants have resumed operation. The rainy season has begun in both the north and the south while the domestic demand for power consumption does not increase and has even fell by 5-7 percent.

Thua Thien Hue has a large number of small and medium enterprises (accounting for 95% of the total), many of which have obsolete equipment consuming much energy. Meanwhile 80% of energy used for living and production every year comes from electricity.

Ca Mau electric grid was built and completed immediately after the administrative separation with Bac Lieu (November 1996). This grid spreads from primary forests in U Minh Thuong and U Minh Ha to Dam Doi district, Ngoc Hien. Due to sparsely populated condition, electrical loss only exceeds 9% because of naked wire and frost. The efforts of the electricity industry and Ca Mau’s people in saving electricity are quite impressing. During the serious lack of electricity in the dry season, Ca Mau has contributed to the national grid by operating its gas-power-fertilizer plant with capacity 1,500MW. To help Southern Electricity Corporation overcome difficulties, the implementation of energy saving and reduction in Ca Mau is a matter of great importance for all sectors. The output in 2010 is scheduled to reach 670 million kWh. However, due to planned reduction, the first 5 months in 2010 only reached 258.3 million kWh, equals to 38.55% of plans.

Deputy Prime Minister asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade to build a biofuel distribution and consumption network in Vietnam, and build and issue Regulations on the use and distribution of Biofuel.

Under the direction of Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai at Announcement number 343/TB-VPCP dated December 4th 2009 on building an energy saving advocacy program to every province, bringing the program to every ward, commune, block, making energy efficiency an emulation target, a standard in the cultural family evaluation, the Hanoi People’s Committee, in coordination with the Ministry of Industry and Trade, organized the pilot campaign for the 2010 Energy Saving and Efficiency for Households in Hanoi, with the theme “Energy efficiency in every household is saving for you and for future generations”.

On June 23rd 2010, the Ministry of Industry and Trade solemnly organized the ceremony of “Honoring the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Denmark in Vietnam for the cause of Industry and Trade”.

During the recent heat wave, electricity consumption has increased sharply: on 19th June, 37 million KWh was used, on 20th June, almost 40 million kWh, increasing by nearly 40% over the same period in 2009. According to EVN Hanoi, the sudden growth mainly gathered in daily life consumption. Meanwhile, in other provinces electricity consumption were deeply reduced - 30% over the same period in 2009 because every week, these provinces have electricity outage in 2-3 days.

2009 statistics from Ministry of Industry and Trade show that Vietnam’s rate of growth in electricity consumption was 2.45 times greater than GDP growth rate. Consumption in industry – construction sector accounted for about 38%, civil 36.8%, transportation 20%, the rest in service and agriculture.