The signing of the cooperation contract is part of the 9th meeting of Australia – Vietnam Joint Trade and Economic Cooperation Committee (JTECC), in June in Melbourne, Australia. Mr Vo Hong Phuc, Minister of Planning and Investment and Mr Simon Crean, Australian Minister of Trade, witnessed the signing. According to the agreement, ECT, through a joint venture which produces coal with Coldry clean technology in Australia (VCPL), will export 2 million tons of Coldry coal per year to Vietnam starting in 2014 and 20 million tons per year by 2020.

Some young fellows stare at a big TV screen and shout noisily as they are watching a World Cup 2010 football match. Some electric fans run at their maximal speed to soothe the ongoing summer heat. The pigsty system behind the house of Tran Van Tam in Phu Trung hamlet, An Phu commune, Cu Chi district, Ho Chi Minh City also gets cooled with home-made ventilation panels. It is unlikely that the area does not benefit from the national power grid and often incurs power outages.

Fourteen years ago, the Hanoi Towers at 49 Hai Ba Trung, Hanoi had Air Handling Units (AHUs) installed for the 13-storey tower consisting of office and shopping space, and Inverter Multi Systems installed for the 25-storey apartment tower. At that time, AHUs and Inverter Multi Systems were modern technologies.

In Quang Ninh, in May, the average allocated capacity is just 4.4 – 4.5 million kWh per day (not including capacity for cement factories), while the demand is up to 5.5 – 6 million kWh per day. “That businesses take the initiative to invest in energy-saving systems is primarily for their own economic purpose. Moreover, they have contributed much to the society and shared the difficulties with the community. If each hotel, each factory can save a few thousands of kWh, hundreds of families will have electricity to use”, said Mr. Do.

On the morning of June 15, 2010, in coordination with the Energy Conservation Office of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Infrastructure Department and the Urban Development Department of the Ministry of Construction, and the Vietnam Energy Efficient Public Lighting (VEEPL) project, the Vietnam Urban Lighting Association and the Anh sang & Cuoc song (Light & Life) magazine organized a workshop to discuss the role of the media in ensuring efficient use of energy for lighting purposes.

Nuclear power technology is developing and Vietnam must be updated continuously with new technology, especially in the field of waste treatment and material reuse, said Brett Jacobs, the Southeast Asia Programs Manager under the International Energy Agency (IEA)’s Directorate of Global Energy Dialogue, at a meeting with Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Huu Hao.

The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Office, the Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade, the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Center will join hands with the Hanoi Women’s Union to host diverse training courses on energy efficiency and conservation for families living in the city’s 10 inner districts from June 23 to July 27, 2010, said the Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade’s leadership in a press meeting on June 16, 2010.

Since 2008, the Board of Directors has decided to collaborate with the Energy Efficiency Research and Development Center – ENERTEAM in conducting energy audits at the company headquarter. Results showed that energy conservation potentials at the company are very promising, all solutions proposed required little investment and were easy to implement in practical application.

According to the Master plan for Vietnam building material development to 2020, demands for building materials in 2010, 2015, 2020 are correspondingly 25, 32, 42 billion brick equivalent units, in which, the proportions of non-baked material are 10%, 15 – 20% and 30 – 40%, respectively.

“Encouraging small and medium businesses in developing countries to use resources effectively" is a pilot program which has been carried out by UNEP to reinforce manufacturing competence of these businesses to implement cleaner production and to use natural resources effectively, in the end, contributing to decreasing production costs, minimizing pollution, improving health and enhancing industrial safety.

Held by The World & Vietnam Magazine (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) in cooperation with the Asia Business Forum (ABF), and European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (Eurocham), the conference is the largest ever on the issue. It is forecast that Vietnam's economy continues to grow rapidly while the population will reach 100 million by 2020. To meet the demand for electricity, Vietnam's power sector must maintain a growth rate of more than 12% annually.

EVN Hanoi has discussed energy saving with its prime customers consuming more than 3 million kwh per year or having capacity of greater than 500kW. Thang Long, Quang Minh and Noi Bai industrial zones agree to EVN Hanoi not to exceed the amounts of consumption stated on electricity supply contracts, avoid overloads and cut from 5 to 10% of its energy consumption demand, equivalent to about 3302.43 to 6603.86 MWh.

As an agriculture-based country, Vietnam has great potential to develop biogas in the animal husbandry sector. Statistics show that every year, cattle and poultry herds in Vietnam discharge about 73 million tonnes of droppings. Each tonne of muck can cause 0.24 tonne of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent, which means 73 million tonnes of animal droppings will cause 17.52 million tonnes of CO2, seriously polluting the environment.

The Vietnam project ‘Building four-chamber conveyor-type ceramic brick furnaces using rice husk gasification technology’ will be honored the 2009 Energy Globe Award in a ceremony to be held on June 3, 2010 in Rwanda.

The chairman of the National Assembly’s Science, Technology and Environment Committee Prof. and Dr. of Sc. Dang Vu Minh, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Dr. Do Huu Hao, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Dr. Le Dinh Tien and the head of the Vietnam Nuclear Energy Institute Dr. Vuong Huu Tan all attended the exhibition.

Construction Industry in Viet Nam has been growing quickly in recent years, with growth rate of 12 – 16% per year. This quick growth, however, means an uncontrollably increasing use of energy and natural resources in construction. Statistics show that there are about 1,000 buildings consuming more than 1 million kWh per year. Such enormous energy waste could be greatly reduced (20% to 30%) under an energy efficiency plan in construction design.

To realize energy saving plan in order to reduce cost of production, the company’s leaders have planned to run concrete crushing machine during off-peak hours, hence consuming less electricity on producing concrete and clinker in comparison with previous targets. The company has also reduced time spent on drying furnace, and burned coal right after solving furnace problem instead of using MFO oil; hence dramatically reducing oil consumption.

So, cutting off electricity by zone on a temporary basis to save power is unavoidable. Moreover, from March 1, 2010, the price of electricity has increased by VND948.5 (8.92 percent) per kWh compared with the price of 2009. So each family has to pay a higher electricity bill. For those reasons, it is an urgent need to save power.

The Mekong Plastic Joint Stock Company (Trung An Industrial Zone, My Tho city, Tien Giang province) specializes in producing diverse ranges of packaging serving domestic and export markets with an annual revenue of around VND100 billion. Surveys show that the company can save VND245 million each year if it applies energy efficient measures.

Through energy audit and the application of some solutions and models of the project “Investigate, assess, propose solutions and develop energy-saving models for a number of schools, hospitals, factories and flower farms of Lam Dong” implemented by Energy Conservation Center of Ho Chi Minh city, more than VND500 million has been saved and a large amount of CO2 emission which causes greenhouse effect has been reduced.

The Institute for Building, Science and Technology (IBST) on May 12th held a scientific seminar on “The experiences in implementing energy saving and efficiency program of the EU and Bulgaria and the application of energy efficiency meter software in Vietnam.” Participants of the workshop included Mr. Vladimir Moskov, commissioner of Bulgarian Embassy in Vietnam, Prof. Dr Nikola Geargiev Kaloyanov, Vice-Chancellor of Technical University of Sofia, project director and some other experts. On Vietnam side are Assoc. Prof. Dr Cao Duy Tien, director of IBST, Assoc. Prof. Dr Nguyen Xuan Chinh, deputy director of IBST concurrently project director, other experts from research institutes and universities and other interested researchers.

A retailer shopping centers and supermarkets, Big C welcomes thousands of shoppers every day. Its power expenditure accounts for a proportion as large as 30% of the total outsource service costs. Thus, energy saving activities will bring about practical benefits, helping the retailer meet dual targets: reducing costs to fulfill its mission statement “low prices for every one” to boost its market share, and achieving the national target in energy savings and efficiency together with the whole society.

The demand for electricity of Ba Ria – Vung Tau (BR - VT) averages more than 7 million kWh, but the allocated output is only 6 million kWh. Thus, the power cut frequency in the province since the beginning of April has been “every two days”, 1.5 times higher than the same period in 2009, which has dramatically affected all aspects of life.

Leaders of the two companies were very pleased as experts of the Energy Efficiency Center of Hanoi and Ninh Binh Department of Industry and Trade’s Energy Management Office have helped them discover the energy saving potential. Thereby, the two companies will gradually apply the proposed solutions to redress the wasted energy.

To learn energy situation at the whole group and find opportunities to save energy cost, Vinacomin conducted energy audits at its 32 affiliates, including 12 coal-pit and 5 open-cast extraction businesses, 2 sieving units, 6 mechanical engineering units and 2 transport enterprises. The survey results showed that coal-pit extraction facilities could save between six to 14.7 percent of total power consumption, averaging 10.7 percent. If energy efficient measures were taken, these coal-pit extraction units could save nearly 30 million KWh (equal to 3,000 tonnes of oil equivalent) or more than VND25 billion each year.

In April 2010, Hai Phong is distributed only 7.75 million kWh per day, while it will consume between 9-10 million kWh per day to meet all its demands. Unlike many provinces and cities which often have power cut in the hot dry season, Hai Phong is still light. Most people in the city don’t have to face power outage. This was because Hai Phong Electricity has creatively issued "quotas" for electricity.