Several projects in both wind power and titanium mining sectors in the central province of Binh Thuan have been put on hold as most of the land reserved for wind power overlaps the sites for titanium mining, a provincial official said.
 

Wind power in Binh Thuan holds big potential development, but projects in this sector are on a direct collision course with titanium ones.

Ho Son Hung, deputy director of the province’s Department of Industry and Trade, told the Daily on Thursday that the provincial government had to date licensed a total of 12 wind power projects covering some 14,000 hectares.

“However, nearly 12,000 hectares of land for the wind power projects is overlapping areas of titanium exploitation with total reserves of some 500 million tons,” he said after a meeting on wind power on Thursday in Binh Thuan.

The twelve licensed wind power projects are Binh Thuan Wind Power 1, Tien Thanh, Phuoc The, Saigon-Binh Thuan, Mien Dong, Thuan Nhien Phong, Binh Thuan, Phu Lac, Van Thanh, HD, WPD, and Vinh Hao.

“This has been an awkward situation for years. We have asked the Government to give a final decision on which areas to be allowed for tapping titanium now and which titanium areas are to be reserved for next generations so that we could continue licensing wind power projects in the coming time,” he said.

“The province will hopefully receive a final decision from the Government in November this year,” he said.

Because of the overlapping situation, the province has decided to stop giving more investment licenses for wind power projects while pending a clearer plan for exploiting titanium reserves.

Hung said he had just heard that the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment had completed a scheme pinpointing locations of titanium around the province. Binh Thuan is expecting to have the scheme soon.

In recent years, Binh Thuan Province has been known as an attractive place for investors of both titanium projects and wind power projects. The province is said to have total wind power potentiality of some 3,000 MW to be developed between 2010 and 2020 on a total area of some 75,500 hectares, while titanium reserves in the locality are estimated at half a billion tons.

The province on Thursday organized a seminar on wind power development with the participation of many domestic and international energy experts.

Many experts agreed that Binh Thuan’s wind power potentiality will be effectively tapped if the power generated from wind is sold at a better price to ensure profits for investors.