Joost Starmans has arrived in Vietnam! Vietnam is widely considered as a promising market for renewable energy, thanks to its vast natural resources, ever-growing energy demand and the country’s commitment at COP26 (Glasgow Climate Conference) to be carbon neutral by 2050.
Joost has recently moved to Vietnam to support the roll-out of our services and to strengthen our local presence. We wish Joost all the best with this exciting challenge!
Interested in learning more about Joost’s journey? Read his story below.
A short introduction
Joost Starmans has been working as a renewable energy consultant at Pondera since 2016. He has since been involved in numerous projects, ranging from feasibility studies, permit and subsidy applications to energy yield and business case calculations. In addition, he has worked on assignments for local authorities to provide insight into the technical potential of renewable energy and to design CO2-neutral energy scenarios in the process. Recently, Joost joined Pondera’s international team, which is engaged in consultancy and project development in the field of renewable energy sourced from (offshore) wind and solar in the region of Asia. Since the end of December 2021, he has been able to call Vietnam his new home.
The Vietnamese energy market
Pondera provides a wide range of services for the realisation of renewable energy projects and there seems to be high growth potential for this type of projects in Vietnam. In Southeast Asia and the Indo-Pacific region, Vietnam is one of the countries with a relatively large amount of wind. There is also significant possibility for the development of solar energy, especially in the central and southern regions of the country. Only a fraction of today’s Vietnamese electricity production is generated from renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. In addition, the country needs electricity for its rapid economic growth; the demand for electricity will most likely continue to grow by +10% annually until 2030. Moreover, during COP26, the Vietnamese government made the surprising commitment to be carbon neutral by 2050.
Challenges and priorities
The greatest personal challenge Joost currently encounters is the travel restrictions due to COVID-19 and the consequential uncertainty. Since the first half of 2020, Vietnam has banned commercial flights, and it is unknown when its borders will fully open again. With regard to sustainable energy projects, Joost sees a challenge in the fact that there is currently a lot of uncertainty about the future policy framework in Vietnam. There is no clear vision yet about the incentive package for projects and the exact shape of the future energy mix. Moreover, the Vietnamese electricity network cannot currently cope with the speed of project development.
Joost has a number of priorities for the upcoming period, for instance, contributing to the development of Pondera’s services in Vietnam. Besides supporting project developers in all phases of the development of (offshore) wind and solar projects, Pondera also provides specific services in the field of wind measurements with floating LIDARs and the calculation of the project’s expected energy yield and business case. In addition, Joost will support setting up a local office and will visit existing and new business contacts in order to strengthen our Vietnamese network.
Do you have questions about the Vietnamese energy market, our services there or do you see opportunities for cooperation? Then please contact Joost using the details below.
