Denmark's Orsted and T&T Group, a leading Vietnamese cross-industry conglomerate, have agreed to launch a strategic collaboration on offshore wind in Vietnam. The two parties signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) during a recent visit to Brussels by a high-level Vietnamese delegation led by the president of Vietnam's National Assembly, Vuong Dinh Hue.

The collaboration brings together a multi-gigawatt (GW) pipeline of greenfield offshore wind projects located off the coasts of Binh Thuan and Ninh Thuan provinces, Vietnam's most suitable areas for offshore wind development.

With more than 3,200 kilometres of coastline and high consistent wind speeds, Vietnam has some of the best conditions for developing offshore wind in Asia. The World Bank Group estimates that the country has offshore wind potential of up to 500GW.

In addition to this potential, Vietnam's rapidly growing demand for power means there is an urgent need for new large-scale reliable energy sources in the coming decades. These factors, in combination with Vietnam's strong supply chain potential, have convinced Orsted and T&T Group that offshore wind has a central role to play in the country's future power mix.

"Ten years ago, we began researching and preparing for the development of renewable energy in order to be ready when the time was right," says Do Quang Hien, T&T Group president and general director. "This has resulted in T&T completing several large solar PV projects and being on track to complete five big onshore wind projects by the end of this year."

"As the global offshore wind leader, Orsted targets 30GW of offshore wind by 2030," says Martin Neubert, chief commercial officer and deputy chief executive officer at Orsted.  "To support this ambitious build-out, we need to work closely with partners such as T&T, who has an impressive track record of developing large energy projects in Vietnam, and who bring a deep understanding of the market."

Orsted develops, constructs, and operates offshore and onshore wind farms, solar farms, energy storage facilities, and bioenergy plants, and provides energy products to its customers. Headquartered in Denmark and majority-owned by the Danish state, it has developed and constructed 27 offshore wind farms with a gross installed capacity of over 7.6GW, and has a further 2.3GW under construction.

Founded in 1993, T&T Group is one of Vietnam's leading industrial conglomerates with activities spanning transport, infrastructure, seaport, mining, energy, logistics, agricultural, and environmental industries, among other sectors. It has about 80,000 employees.

Within renewable energy, T&T Group is on track to have commissioned close to 800 megawatts of solar PV and onshore wind projects by the end of 2021. In the next 10 years, the group plans to develop LNG and renewable energy projects with an estimated total capacity of 10GW to 11GW, accounting for around 8% of Vietnam's total installed capacity.