Vietnam’s Solar Capacity Surpasses 19 GW

Vietnam's cumulative solar capacity reached 19,252 MW by the end of 2025, according to figures published by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), up from 18,666 MW by the end of 2024.

The 586 MW increase, included in IRENA's Renewable Capacity Statistics 2026, is up on the 79 MW added in 2024 but down on the almost 1.6 GW added in 2023, as indicated by additional figures from IRENA's database.

Lam Pham and Alnie Demoral, energy analysts at Ember specialising in Asian markets, told pv magazine that rooftop solar is performing best in Vietnam, with interest growing in particular among commercial and industrial stakeholders.

"Utility solar faces various challenges to scale in Vietnam, currently including entrenched fossil fuel generation, inadequate grid infrastructure, resistance from utilities wary of managing intermittent renewables and high upfront investment cost," Pham and Demoral said. "These have arisen since the solar boom triggered by feed-in tariffs back in 2017."

Last year saw Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade update feed-in tariff rates for solar and wind projects, introducing separate tariffs for solar projects incorporating battery energy storage. Pham and Demoral said tariff rates have been on a downward trend since 2017 and are "relatively low at the moment, except for systems with battery storage."

Pham and Demoral cited other market drivers, such as geopolitical tensions and supply chain shifts, that are bringing manufacturing investments and purchase orders to Vietnam. "Many of them, as multinational consumer brands with Scope 2 emissions commitments, increased their manufacturing footprint," they explained. "And of course, low solar panel price due to Chinese solar manufacturing in Vietnam."

In January, a draft decree from the Ministry of Industry and Trade proposed rooftop solar owners could sell up to 50% of the energy produced back to the grid, up from a current 20% cap, in a bid to increase future uptake. Pham and Demoral said this change could help demand grow substantially in 2026.

Vietnam introduced a direct power purchase agreement (DPPA) mechanism in early 2025, allowing renewable energy generators to sell electricity directly to large private consumers, breaking a monopoly of the country's sole public power company, Vietnam Electricity.

Pham and Demoral said Vietnam's solar market would benefit from the continued privatisation of the country's electricity market in order to attract private investors. They added that grid integration and curtailment risks should be fixed, as well as greater investment in the grid, batteries and system flexibility.

According to Vietnam's revised national power development plan, approved last year, the country is aiming to reach 73 GW of installed solar and 38 GW of onshore wind by 2030.