The adoption of more energy efficient technologies and practices by enterprises will not only help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it will also help the firms become more profitable, experts said at a workshop on Thursday.
Nguyen Dinh Hau, director of the Promotion of Energy Conservation in Small and Medium sized Enterprises (PECSME) project, said that over the last five years (2006-10), it has been able to save 180,000 TOE (tonne of oil equivalent) and reduce CO2 emissions by 740,000 tonnes.
The savings and reduction in emissions were effected by more than 520 projects, he said.
The five-year project with a total budget of US$28.7 million targeted five industries – brick, textiles, pulp and paper, ceramics and food processing, Hau said.
The project helped cut energy costs in the brick industry by 50 per cent, in the ceramics industry by 40 per cent and 30 per cent each in the pulp and paper, and food processing industries.
It provided finance assistance worth VND41 billion ($2.05 million) to 50 projects in the form of loan guarantees, he said.
More than 1,500 managers and technical officers from small and medium-sized enterprises were trained in the adoption of energy efficiency technology and equipment, and also informed of related benefits and solutions.
The HCM City Energy Conservation Centre informed the workshop that it has conducted investment grade energy audits and provided energy efficiency services to 30 small and medium-sized enterprises in the city under the project.
Thirteen of these were in the pulp and paper industry, 12 in food processing industry and five enterprises in textile industry.
This has resulted in savings of more than 330 TOE and a reduction of more than 800 tonnes of CO2 every year, the centre said.
Huynh Kim Tuoc, director of the centre, said enterprises’ awareness of energy efficiency should be enhanced and more financial and technological supports put in place to help them go green.
Priority should be given to enterprises operating in the industrial sector, which accounts for 40 per cent of the country’s energy consumption, he added.
