Biogas in Vietnam

In the Vietnamese countryside, where about three-quarter of the population live, biogas units are winning more and more takers. It's no wonder, since generating energy with biogas requires just four or five pigs.

Advertisements in newspapers and on the radio regularly bring this fact to Vietnamese farmers' attention. Colorful brochures demonstrate how stinking waste from cows and pigs can be placed in a container and quickly transformed into clean energy and valuable fertilizer.

The next big trend

In the mid-1990s, the Dutch government offered support to a number of developing countries - including Vietnam - for projects that could reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In Vietnam, NGOs and other organizations decided they would use this opportunity to develop biogas units. Several factors contributed to this decision.

First, many families still have no access to the national power supply. Second, they wanted to combat the growing problem of animal waste in Vietnam. The goal was to improve the general quality of life for the rural population.

Since then, the project has enjoyed a lot of success. Farmers, the regional economy and the environment are all profiting from it.

New ways of supplying power

Until now, Vietnam has primarily used fossil fuels and hydroelectric power plants to generate the country's energy. However, a foreseeable rise in energy demands coupled with the simultaneous depletion of natural resources in Vietnam is compelling people to rethink this system.

By 2040, the government wants to increase the share of renewable energy in Vietnam from one percent to 10 percent. On the other hand, the government hasn't rejected the possibility of building atomic power plants.

Political change also means environmental change

For the coming years, the government has formulated some ambitious goals: better living conditions for the general population and an increase in middle class citizens.

These plans are tied to developments from the 1980s, when the shift to a socialist government away from a free market economy occurred - referred to as "Doi Moi" or "the Renewal." It is a transformation that has led to an annual economic growth rate of about 8 percent and made Vietnam into one of the world's fastest growing economies.

Now the country must try to harmonize the economy with ecology.

Author: Silke Bartlick
Editor: Sabina Casagrande