Publication - Energy Alternatives Study for the Lao People’s Democratic Republic: Smart Infrastructure for the Mekong Program

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Title

Energy Alternatives Study for the Lao People’s Democratic Republic: Smart Infrastructure for the Mekong Program

Publisher

USAID and NREL

Author

Nathan Lee, Nick Grue, and Evan Rosenlieb

Published in

March 2018

Abstract

The government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) has historically prioritized investment in the country’s abundant hydropower resources to ensure a secure, reliable, and affordable supply of energy to support economic development. The country has benefited from this power for development; however, as a result, the energy sector is highly dependent on hydropower resources that contribute 62.1% of the electricity generation mix, with coal and biomass comprising 37.5% and 0.4% of this mix, respectively (MEM 2016). In order to diversify this portfolio, power sector decision makers are

exploring the role that energy resources beyond hydropower could play in their country’s future power system to inform energy planning through 2030.

The purpose of this report is to support the Lao Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) in assessing the technical potential of domestic energy resources for utility scale electricity generation in the Lao PDR. Specifically, this work provides assessments of technical potential, and associated maps of developable areas, for energy technologies of interest. This report details the methodology, assumptions, and datasets employed in this analysis to provide a transparent, replicable process for future analyses. The methodology and results presented are intended to be a fundamental input to subsequent decision making and energy planning-related analyses.

This report is the second output of the Energy Alternatives Study for the Lao PDR (Energy Alternatives Study), a collaboration led by MEM and the United States Agency for International Development under the auspices of the Smart Infrastructure for the Mekong program. The Energy Alternatives Study is composed of five successive tasks that collectively support the project’s goals as shown in FIGURE ES-1. This work is focused on Task 2 – Assess technical potential of domestic energy resources for electricity

generation. The work was carried out by a team from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in collaboration with MEM and other Lao power sector stakeholders

URL

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