The Indochinese Energy Company (IC Energy) broke ground for the construction of a solar panel factory in the central coastal province of Quang Nam on May 14.
Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai, after pressing the start button, emphasised a dire shortage of energy as a huge challenge to the world, saying Vietnam is no exception.
“Vietnam may change its status from an energy exporter currently to an energy importer (by 2015),” Hai, a former industrial minister, warned.
He called for efforts to better tap all available energy resources, especially renewable energy.
In the national energy strategy for 2020 and the vision for 2050, renewable energy is set to make up five percent of the total energy production output by 2015 and eight percent by 2020.
The IC Energy-built solar panel factory has a design capacity of 120MW annually with all products to be for export.
The 390 million USD project is expected to provide jobs for some 1,000 local workers once completed in the next 12 months.
