Investment needed in renewable energy   A solar energy panel is erected in the southern Binh Phuoc Province by a team from HCM City. The city expects to have more investors to develop its renewable energy. -VNS Photo Tran Duyen HCM CITY (VNS)- Investment in generating electricity from new and renewable energy sources is still lower than expected in HCM City. Deputy chairman of the city's People's Committee, Le Manh Hao, told Thoi bao kinh te Viet Nam (Vietnam Economic Times) that such investment was costly but returns were low and therefore unattractive to investors. The city now produces only about 3MW of electricity from new and renewable energy sources. This power is generated from waste in the Go Cat Electricity Plant and from solar energy at Thanh An Island's solar power plant. Meanwhile, the city is scheduled to produce 48MW of electricity from new and renewable sources, equal to 1 per cent of its total power consumption, by 2015, Hao said. Residential and public lighting at present costs about VND130 billion (US$6.2 million) a year. But Hao said that efforts to halve this consumption had failed. "So applying new technologies to generate electricity for public lighting from solar energy and wind power is a sustainable solution for a smart city," he said. And producing power from the sun and wind is now one of the global trends for sustainable development, Hao added. Therefore the People's Committee reviewed the use of new and renewable energy resources to develop policies to encourage investment in the sector. It also directed relevant agencies to give preferential treatment in lending capital for generating electricity from new and renewable energy resources. Support for technology and locations for producing this power were also offered to investors, Hao said. Raising public awareness of the benefits of using solar energy and energy-saving equipment was also necessary. Authorised agencies would support investors to finish scheduled projects such as the Can Gio wind power plant, which would have a capacity to produce 200MW of electricity a year and be worth VND10 trillion. It is expected to be operating by 2016. In the short term, the city would invest in two 3MW wind turbines and in a pilot scheme using solar energy at some Government offices to lure both domestic and international investors to the sector, Hao said. - VNS