Revealing a Shift in Solar Photovoltaic Planning Sites in Vietnam from 2019 to 2022

Abstract

Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology has been widely used as a major source of renewable energy. Vietnam is especially active in installing solar energy systems. The total installed solar PV capacity in Vietnam has significantly increased since 2019, but the spatial evolution of solar panels is yet to be discussed. Therefore, this study aims to reveal the shift that occurred in solar photovoltaic planning sites in Vietnam from 2019 to 2022. Solar PV maps were produced from Sentinel-2 imagery via a deep learning segmentation model. Land cover maps, terrain slope, solar power potential, population density, and power grid datasets were compared to the locations of the detected PV sites each year to reveal a shift in the solar farm planning sites. The result show that the deep learning model achieved satisfactory performance. The observed shift in the PV installation sites suggests that for the first two years, large solar farms were built on suitable land near the electricity grid, while smaller PVs were constructed at locations less suitable for solar energy production in 2021 and 2022. These findings suggest that the shift in solar PV planning in Vietnam was caused by the availability of suitable land with an appropriate energy transfer capacity and the participation of smaller-scale PV operators.