At the meeting. Photo: SNV

On August 6, a kick-off meeting for the Biogas Innovation Fund (BIF) was held at SNV's Vietnam Office in Hanoi. The ceremony marked the official signing of contracts between SNV and award-winning applicants coming from the public, private and civil sector.

The event was attended by representatives of SNV Vietnam including Alison Rusinow - Country Director for Vietnam; Bastiaan Teune - Sector Leader for Energy, the Biogas Programme Management Unit, and the award-winning applicants as well as local media agencies.

A total of EUR 93,000 is granted to selected projects aiming to address limitations in the biogas market. SNV’s Sector Leader for Energy Bastiaan Teune explains the need to offer composite biogas models that meet the demands of bigger farms; appliances to valorize unused biogas; and biodigesters suitable for feedstock other than livestock manure, given the current pig-disease outbreak.

BIF is an initiative in the third phase of Vietnam Biogas Programme (2016-2020) funded by GIZ/ Energizing Development (EnDev) and carbon finance, and implemented by SNV and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The official signing of contracts between SNV and award-winning applicants coming from the public, private and civil sector. Photo: SNV

Out of 15 submitted proposals, 9 proposals from the following actors were selected are Can Tho University with Optimizing the tube biodigester model for farm waste including hyacinth and High efficiency, low pressure operating biogas cookstoves; Son Ha Development of Renewable Energy JSC – Biodigester model for domestic kitchen waste; La Duc Tai Biogas enterprise - Improved technology concrete biodigester; EGREEN Technology JSC - Development of a biogas filtration system; KANKYO Vietnam Joint Stock Company - Biogas sharing piping to households; Thanh Dong Production-Trade-Service - Composite biodigester with larger volumes; Ha Tinh University – Biogas heating system for livestock; and ATEC Biodigesters International (Cambodia)– Vietnam market for larger volume biodigester model.

At the meeting, representatives of grant-winning projects also had the opportunity to share and discuss ideas and innovative concepts.

“We appreciate the Biogas Innovation Fund, as it enables us to exploit the benefits of biogas even further. This event not only creates an interesting playground for all involved applicants, but it also brings opportunities to meet, discuss, and share experience and ideas,” shared Hoang Manh Tan, Director of Son Ha Development of Renewable Energy JSC.

SNV Vietnam Country Director, Alison Rusinow, encouraged the projects: “I am excited to see us learning from successes and from the mistakes. We are taking risks through innovation so we are going through a learning curve that will be very important for the biogas sector.”

Later on this year, SNV will organize a workshop aimed at sharing progress, successes, failures and lessons learned.

Vietnam Biogas Program provides a solution for livestock waste management and generates a renewable energy source of biogas for cooking at the rural areas of Vietnam. During 2003-2019, with support of Dutch Government and EnDev, SNV has been working together with Department of Livestock to deliver over 170,000 biogas digesters nationwide. Each biogas digester contributes to reduce approximately 6 ton of CO2 annually, and brings huge benefit to the biogas users. However, the under-utilised access biogas are leaked away in the atmosphere and this increases GHG emissions, which is harmful and wasteful.

To address these concerns, SNV and EnDev have tested out the biogas minigrid solution, which connects and shares biogas from biogas digester to surrounding neighbours. This solution offers a simple but effective solution, which greatly contributes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening community in Vietnamese villages.

In addition, the project also tested out the application of a Results Based Finance (RBF) mechanism in the implementation of the initiative, which Biogas Enterprises received an incentive for each successful connection of biogas sharing network.

The successful mini-grid trial together with RBF intervention is expected to be a great motivation for Biogas Enterprises to widely apply broad-based initiatives and build common practice for biogas sharing. These initiatives targets on supporting biogas digester owners to make full use of biogas, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, protect the environment, and contribute to the socio-economic development of rural areas in Vietnam./.

SNV