Energy
Electricity production
Thai communities vow to appeal against Laos dam
Even after losing a battle in the Thailand Administrative Court, a group of Thai villagers are not giving up. They have filed appeal after losing the first community-led lawsuit in the region to challenge a large dam on the Mekong river. On 25 Dec 2015 the ...
Programme to focus on sustainable production
Seventy per cent of enterprises with high energy needs and emissions and 50 per cent of industrial production establishments will apply clean and energy-saving technologies by 2020. This is the agenda of a newly approved national action programme on sustainable production and consumption for the period ...
Families displaced by dam get new houses
Some 14 families of 85 people who recently moved to make way for the construction of the Don Sahong hydropower project in Champassak province have received new houses. The houses were handed over on 15 February in Don Sahong village, Khong district, in the presence of provincial ...
The Mekong river: Damned if you do
The Mekong watershed nurtures extraordinary biodiversity, with new species of plants and animals discovered every year. It has also nurtured humans. Tens of millions of people—much of the population of Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam—depend on the Mekong. Planners think the Mekong has a gift to give: hydropower. ...
Cambodian CSOs seek Lao dam discussion at summit
Frustrated by Laos ploughing ahead with its controversial Don Sahong dam despite past promises to consult neighbouring countries, Cambodian civil society representatives have called on Prime Minister Hun Sen, US President Barack Obama and ASEAN chair Le Luong Minh to raise the issue at next week’s ...
Attapeu hopes to build wind power
The wind speeds in some parts of Attapeu province are sufficient for the development of wind power in the neighbourhood however wind turbines are not yet seen there. Director of the provincial Energy and Mines Department Mr Vithaya Phommachanh told Vientiane Times on 10 February that there ...
Cambodian activists want Laos dam on US-ASEAN agenda
Civil society groups are calling for Laos’ Don Sahong hydropower dam project to be discussed when Southeast Asian leaders meet with President Barack Obama next week at the Sunnylands estate in Rancho Mirage, California. The unprecedented U.S.-hosted ASEAN summit comes amid increased efforts by the Obama ...
Oil blocks to remain open
The Cambodian government said on 9 February it would postpone bidding on two vacated offshore oil blocks given the low global levels of investment flowing into petroleum exploration activities. The Ministry of Mines and Energy revoked the exploration licences of Resourceful Petroleum Limited last month after the ...
Put Don Sahong Dam on U.S.-ASEAN agenda, say campaigners
Civil society groups are calling for Laos’ Don Sahong hydropower dam project to be discussed when Southeast Asian leaders meet with U.S. President Barack Obama next week. Leaders of the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states will converge on the Sunnylands estate in California ...
Lao hydro: wind to ease ASEAN energy shortage
Laos, often called the “Battery of ASEAN”, will live up to its name by supplying ASEAN power at a critical time, when energy demand in the region’s fast growing economies threatens shortages amid several infrastructure and urbanisation projects, pledged Laos Vice Minister for Energy Viraphonh Vilavong. Thailand, which ...