Laos promotes green energy development
Laos promotes green energy development
A Thai renewable energy group, DPS, hopes to generate electricity using wind and solar power as well as from waste in Xieng Khuang province in the near future.
The company signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the provincial planning and investment department on the project last week.
The MOU was to allow the renewable energy company to conduct a feasibility study that it expects to complete within 18 months.
If the project gets the go ahead, it will be the first green energy project of its kind in Laos and will also have flow on benefits for other sectors, including tourism and agricultural production in the province.
Three years ago, another company from Thailand, Impact Electrons Siam Co Ltd, planned to develop a wind farm power project in Laos within five years, starting in November 2011 when the company signed a MOU with the Lao Ministry of Planning and Investment that covered the study of a proposed phased project in Khammuan, Savannakhet and Xekong provinces. The expectation was that it would have an installed capacity of about 600 megawatts initially by harnessing the monsoon winds across Laos.
If projects like these can be successfully developed it would see Laos at the forefront of the worldwide discussion on carbon as they have no impact on local communities and no impact on agricultural activities. They may open up a new avenue to benefit local people through the harnessing of wind resources.
The Lao government is actively promoting renewable energy development, including the nation's hydropower resources to increase electricity production and supply power for both domestic use and export to neighbouring countries.
Minister of Energy and Mines Mr Soulivong Daravong highlighted at the 29 th Asean Ministers on Energy Meeting held in Brunei in 2011 that Laos can help Asean countries to reduce their use of fossil fuels, which are the main source of greenhouse gas emissions via its abundant renewable energy and importantly can help Asean to stabilise its power supply.
vientiane times
