The government of Vietnam aims to rapidly expand renewable energy—particularly solar and wind—to meet net-zero emissions targets. However, much of Vietnam’s most productive solar potential overlaps with agricultural land. Agrivoltaics, which integrate solar energy production on agricultural land while allowing for simultaneous crop production, present a unique solution to land tensions between rapid renewable energy expansion and food production.
In an effort to meet its commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2050, Vietnam has set ambitious goals to slash carbon emissions within its energy sector. Vietnam’s latest Power Development Plan (PDP8), approved in May 2023, plans for renewable energy to cover 32% of energy needs by 2032 and for Vietnam to capitalize on the country’s high solar and wind potential to reach 170 GW and 130 GW capacity respectively by 2050.
According to a 2015 study by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, potentials for concentrated solar and PVs are highest in the southeast, the Central Highlands, and the Mekong Delta. However, large-scale solar expansion in these regions will require a large number of land concessions, as well as redesignation. Solar power generation requires between five to ten acres per megawatt (MW) depending on the technology used. Even without considering land-use issues, fragmented land management can complicate development of large-scale solar farms. Land is in high demand in Vietnam, there generally are not large patches of land available in the areas with highest solar potential because rural land is distributed to individuals in small parcels. Most farmers in Vietnam have less than 1 ha (or 2.4 acres) of land, meaning that solar developers need to negotiate with multiple local farmers to build large-scale power plants.
Some solar projects in Vietnam have already faced slowdowns and cancellations due to land-use conflict and permitting issues related to solar PV installed on agricultural land. This past December, the Government Inspectorate of Vietnam (GIV) identified numerous rooftop solar projects which violated land use plans because the projects benefited from FIT price mechanisms designed for rooftop solar despite being constructed on agricultural and forestry land.
Other countries have seen similar legal battles over competition between agricultural land and renewable energy expansion, with Thailand as a nearby example. Legal issues over whether farm land could be used for wind farms led to delays or derailment of some large-scale wind power investments in Thailand in 2017. While the governmentultimately cleared most of the projects as meeting legal requirements, this raised uncertainties about permitting and land-use tensions. Thailand has approximately 1,600 MW of operational wind projects as of 2023, all of which came online before 2020. While Thailand has expanded solar in recent years, many of the projects under development are floating solar projects which avoid land-use issues. As of January, Thailand’s NPS Green Lake and Sirindhorn Hydro-Floating Solar Hybrid Project were two of the five largest floating solar projects in Southeast Asia. Vietnam is not far behind with five of the top ten largest floating solar projects.
Given the inherent tension in the Mekong Delta between agricultural production and the need for land to leverage the region’s high solar potential, Vietnam should embrace innovative approaches to meet the country’s ambitious renewable energy production targets while limiting disputes over solar, wind, and agricultural land-use designations. Agrivoltaics, which integrate solar energy production on agricultural land while allowing for simultaneous crop production, present a unique solution to the competitive nature between renewable energy expansion and food production.
Vietnam already hosts numerous pilot projects aimed at testing agriculture and aquaculture viability under PV modules. A study in Can Tho found that nine agricultural and aquaculture products (rice, corn/maize, soybean, sesame, vegetables, cassava/starch roots, livestock, fish and shrimp) were suitable for solar dual-use. The “SHRIMPS” project is currently studying the economic and technical feasibility of breeding pangasius fish and shrimp under aqua voltaics system technology (AquaPV) in An Giang and Bac Lieu provinces.
Combining solar energy production and farming supports food and income security, expands electricity access to rural agricultural areas, and mitigates agricultural emissions. In the Vo Ba hamlet in An Giang province, for example, small-scale solar projects provide energy to pump water for field irrigation. For the hamlet’s small-scale farmers, many of whom remain disconnected from the national grid, solar water pumping systems have reduced irrigation costs and improved incomes.
Agrivoltaics were identified as a fundable solution with short-term benefits during discussions at the recently held Mekong-US Partnership Track 1.5 Policy Dialogue on Food Security, hosted in Ho Chi Minh City over March 18-19. Small-scale agrivoltaics done off-grid can address declining incomes faced by farmers across Vietnam by providing them with localized energy systems that cut the costs of diesel for farm activities. By creating a localized mechanism for renewable energy generation, agrivoltaics would also further support Vietnam’s Resolution No. 120 on sustainable development of the Mekong Delta. Vietnam should invest in and encourage more pilot projects in this space at the local level to build data on the successes and challenges of small-scale agrivoltaics. Building experience at the local level now will allow for quicker, more effective investment schemes and agrivoltaics expansion when the national grid improves and can effectively integrate larger solar farms.
Implementing agrivoltaics across Vietnam will require the Government of Vietnam to incentivize both investment in and research on agrivoltaics. Given differing levels of solar potential, varying crop expertise and specialization among farmers, and differing local agricultural planning policies, Vietnam would benefit significantly from region-specific research and pilot projects to best tailor agrivoltaics expansion and crop selection to the local agro-ecological context. Local-level analysis of land use is also necessary to inform local authorities and provincial planners as they consider how to best develop local projects.
Vietnam’s 2024 Land Law increased local authorities’ role in overseeing development on agricultural and forestry land. By removing the requirement that the Prime Minister must approve changes of land use in large-scale projects, except in specific cases requiring approval under the investment policy, the law assigns local authorities as the regulators for land use changes in large-scale projects. Local capacity-building to support understanding of the benefits and operational shifts needed for agrivoltaics is key to ensuring success of such projects.
The PDP8 calls for increased rooftop solar and provides financial incentives for small-scale solar systems disconnected from the national grid. This signals that the government is prioritizing renewables which are less impactful on the grid and less land-intensive. Similar incentives and approaches could potentially be applied for agrivoltaic systems if Vietnam provides a pathway and financial incentives specific to agrivoltaics and clarifies zoning laws and permitting processes to include new technologies such as agrivoltaics within land-use and infrastructure regulation.
Alana Ballagh is a former Southeast Asia Program intern. She is currently a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Vientiane, Laos.
This analysis is generously supported by the BRIDGE (Building River Dialogue and Governance) Project, which aims to build water governance capacities through learning, demonstration, leadership, and consensus building and is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and implemented in Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Vietnam by IUCN.
Agrivoltaics in Vietnam
Resolving Land-Use Competition Between Solar Expansion and Agriculture
By Alana Ballagh • Courtney Weatherby
Southeast Asia
The government of Vietnam aims to rapidly expand renewable energy—particularly solar and wind—to meet net-zero emissions targets. However, much of Vietnam’s most productive solar potential overlaps with agricultural land. Agrivoltaics, which integrate solar energy production on agricultural land while allowing for simultaneous crop production, present a unique solution to land tensions between rapid renewable energy expansion and food production.
In an effort to meet its commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2050, Vietnam has set ambitious goals to slash carbon emissions within its energy sector. Vietnam’s latest Power Development Plan (PDP8), approved in May 2023, plans for renewable energy to cover 32% of energy needs by 2032 and for Vietnam to capitalize on the country’s high solar and wind potential to reach 170 GW and 130 GW capacity respectively by 2050.
According to a 2015 study by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, potentials for concentrated solar and PVs are highest in the southeast, the Central Highlands, and the Mekong Delta. However, large-scale solar expansion in these regions will require a large number of land concessions, as well as redesignation. Solar power generation requires between five to ten acres per megawatt (MW) depending on the technology used. Even without considering land-use issues, fragmented land management can complicate development of large-scale solar farms. Land is in high demand in Vietnam, there generally are not large patches of land available in the areas with highest solar potential because rural land is distributed to individuals in small parcels. Most farmers in Vietnam have less than 1 ha (or 2.4 acres) of land, meaning that solar developers need to negotiate with multiple local farmers to build large-scale power plants.
Solar projects have to compete with land designated for agriculture and aquaculture, which may complicate this process in areas such as the Mekong Delta, which produces over 90% of Vietnam’s rice exports, 50% of the rice for domestic consumption, and 90% of national aquaculture. Climate adaptation is already at the forefront of domestic development decisions in this area given existing losses in agricultural land due to sea-level rise and groundwater exploitation. Large-scale loss of aquaculture or agricultural land in the Delta for power production would aggravate existing concerns about food security.
Some solar projects in Vietnam have already faced slowdowns and cancellations due to land-use conflict and permitting issues related to solar PV installed on agricultural land. This past December, the Government Inspectorate of Vietnam (GIV) identified numerous rooftop solar projects which violated land use plans because the projects benefited from FIT price mechanisms designed for rooftop solar despite being constructed on agricultural and forestry land.
Other countries have seen similar legal battles over competition between agricultural land and renewable energy expansion, with Thailand as a nearby example. Legal issues over whether farm land could be used for wind farms led to delays or derailment of some large-scale wind power investments in Thailand in 2017. While the government ultimately cleared most of the projects as meeting legal requirements, this raised uncertainties about permitting and land-use tensions. Thailand has approximately 1,600 MW of operational wind projects as of 2023, all of which came online before 2020. While Thailand has expanded solar in recent years, many of the projects under development are floating solar projects which avoid land-use issues. As of January, Thailand’s NPS Green Lake and Sirindhorn Hydro-Floating Solar Hybrid Project were two of the five largest floating solar projects in Southeast Asia. Vietnam is not far behind with five of the top ten largest floating solar projects.
Given the inherent tension in the Mekong Delta between agricultural production and the need for land to leverage the region’s high solar potential, Vietnam should embrace innovative approaches to meet the country’s ambitious renewable energy production targets while limiting disputes over solar, wind, and agricultural land-use designations. Agrivoltaics, which integrate solar energy production on agricultural land while allowing for simultaneous crop production, present a unique solution to the competitive nature between renewable energy expansion and food production.
Vietnam already hosts numerous pilot projects aimed at testing agriculture and aquaculture viability under PV modules. A study in Can Tho found that nine agricultural and aquaculture products (rice, corn/maize, soybean, sesame, vegetables, cassava/starch roots, livestock, fish and shrimp) were suitable for solar dual-use. The “SHRIMPS” project is currently studying the economic and technical feasibility of breeding pangasius fish and shrimp under aqua voltaics system technology (AquaPV) in An Giang and Bac Lieu provinces.
Combining solar energy production and farming supports food and income security, expands electricity access to rural agricultural areas, and mitigates agricultural emissions. In the Vo Ba hamlet in An Giang province, for example, small-scale solar projects provide energy to pump water for field irrigation. For the hamlet’s small-scale farmers, many of whom remain disconnected from the national grid, solar water pumping systems have reduced irrigation costs and improved incomes.
Agrivoltaics were identified as a fundable solution with short-term benefits during discussions at the recently held Mekong-US Partnership Track 1.5 Policy Dialogue on Food Security, hosted in Ho Chi Minh City over March 18-19. Small-scale agrivoltaics done off-grid can address declining incomes faced by farmers across Vietnam by providing them with localized energy systems that cut the costs of diesel for farm activities. By creating a localized mechanism for renewable energy generation, agrivoltaics would also further support Vietnam’s Resolution No. 120 on sustainable development of the Mekong Delta. Vietnam should invest in and encourage more pilot projects in this space at the local level to build data on the successes and challenges of small-scale agrivoltaics. Building experience at the local level now will allow for quicker, more effective investment schemes and agrivoltaics expansion when the national grid improves and can effectively integrate larger solar farms.
Implementing agrivoltaics across Vietnam will require the Government of Vietnam to incentivize both investment in and research on agrivoltaics. Given differing levels of solar potential, varying crop expertise and specialization among farmers, and differing local agricultural planning policies, Vietnam would benefit significantly from region-specific research and pilot projects to best tailor agrivoltaics expansion and crop selection to the local agro-ecological context. Local-level analysis of land use is also necessary to inform local authorities and provincial planners as they consider how to best develop local projects.
Vietnam’s 2024 Land Law increased local authorities’ role in overseeing development on agricultural and forestry land. By removing the requirement that the Prime Minister must approve changes of land use in large-scale projects, except in specific cases requiring approval under the investment policy, the law assigns local authorities as the regulators for land use changes in large-scale projects. Local capacity-building to support understanding of the benefits and operational shifts needed for agrivoltaics is key to ensuring success of such projects.
The PDP8 calls for increased rooftop solar and provides financial incentives for small-scale solar systems disconnected from the national grid. This signals that the government is prioritizing renewables which are less impactful on the grid and less land-intensive. Similar incentives and approaches could potentially be applied for agrivoltaic systems if Vietnam provides a pathway and financial incentives specific to agrivoltaics and clarifies zoning laws and permitting processes to include new technologies such as agrivoltaics within land-use and infrastructure regulation.
Alana Ballagh is a former Southeast Asia Program intern. She is currently a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Vientiane, Laos.
This analysis is generously supported by the BRIDGE (Building River Dialogue and Governance) Project, which aims to build water governance capacities through learning, demonstration, leadership, and consensus building and is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and implemented in Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Vietnam by IUCN.
Recent & Related