To make the most of the land in the Mekong River Delta, an agricultural
production model with solar power is being applied and replicated from
enterprise to household scale.
Land fund optimization
Bac Lieu is striving to become one of the centers for renewable energy and
clean energy in Vietnam. In fact, Bac Lieu and the provinces in the Mekong
River Delta have great advantages in development of clean energy, especially
solar energy. This region records the number of sunny hours per year ranging
from 2,200 to 2,500 hours, with an average daily solar radiation energy of 4.3
to 4.9 kWh / m2. According to calculations, for every 1m2 of installed solar
panels can collect 5 kWh of electricity per day. The light source is very stable,
with more than 90% of the days in the year getting sunlight strong enough to
power the solar panels. Meanwhile, being the largest shrimp granary in the
country, saving electricity in shrimp farming is still a big problem for the
electricity industry.

Solar panels installed on a pond of calm water at Long Manh Company

Long Manh Company Limited (Hoa Binh district, Bac Lieu province) is a
shrimp farm of 4 ha, the annual output is to about 75-80 tons of shrimp.
Receiving support from the Climate Change Adaptation Program of the
Mekong River Delta, Mr. Long Van Nghia - the owner of the farm and his
wife decided to invest in installing solar power systems right on the settling
ponds used to feed shrimp. By investing 32 billion VND for 2MW capacity,
each year Mr. Nghia earns 7 billion VND from selling electricity and 20
billion VND from shrimp farming.
“Solar power on shrimp farms has many important implications: Ensuring
electricity for production, at the same time this is also a clean power source
produced in empty calm settling ponds. The pond is very clean when it is
roofed with solar cells, which used for shrimp pond with very safe mode”-
Mr. Nghia commented on this model.
On the other hand, the use of solar power in shrimp farming is also an
important standard in exports to European countries. Most popular
certifications such as ASC, GlobalGAP, FOS ... require criteria of "social
responsibility".
Find directions
Not only combining solar power generation in shrimp farming, many solar
power plants are taking advantage of the area below the solar panel to
cultivate and breed livestock. Mr. Nguyen Quoc Khanh, an independent
energy expert - said, “Solar energy can be exploited without much impact on
agricultural production and not necessarily land acquisition. The productivity
of arable land can be increased by up to 60% ”.
In Ninh Thuan, the Cyclic Energy Solution Company (CAS) is applying goat
farming and experimental planting of trees under panels at 3-hectare solar
farm.
Mr. Tran Anh Dong - CAS Director - said that the company's main revenue is
from solar power and "just enough to pay bank debt". As for agricultural
production, he and his colleagues are still struggling to find suitable crops.
According to the study, the installation of solar PV can cause climate change
in the area around the solar panels, because the temperature around the panels
is always higher than the average temperature, the land may be deserted.
In 2017, the high-tech agriculture-combined solar power plant, named
Sinenergy Ninh Thuan 1 with a capacity of 50 MWh, signed a memorandum
of understanding with Ninh Thuan province to invest in solar power
production and high-tech agriculture (growing vegetables, tomatoes, apples,
garlic etc.). However, as of March 2021, 100% of the plant's revenue still
came from solar power.

The model of solar power combined with agriculture not only increases the
efficiency of land use, but also creates more income for farmers. However,
this model still has many limitations because it has not met the farm
economic criteria, there is no technical guidance on the model, the lack of a
practical model etc.
By: Thu Thủy