PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade to report after local media quoted Nguy Thi Khanh, director of the Hanoi-based Green Innovation and Development Center (GreenID), as saying many investors were interested in renewable energy but faced challenges in administrative procedures that increase energy prices.

She proposed that these procedures are simplified or removed to attract more investors.

Vietnam is said to have great potentials for renewable energy development with a long coastline and 2,700 sun hours a year. The government has issued policies to attract investors for renewable energy production to reduce the country’s dependence on thermal power.

The country has added 121 solar power projects with a capacity of 8,100 MW to the national electricity plan. It is estimated that by the end of this year, another 2,000 MW of wind and solar electricity will be added to the country’s electricity network.

Vietnam’s economy, one of the fastest-growing in the region, makes the country hungry for power. World Bank country director for Vietnam Ousmane Dione said that Vietnam would need to raise $150 billion by 2030 to develop its energy sector, with electricity demand growing by around 8 percent a year over the next decade.

But the country faces difficulty in increasing power generation since it has decided to put nuclear power on hold, many coal-fired plants are behind schedule and renewables are not being developed on a large scale due to high costs and transmission limitations.