Energy

Southeast Asian energy companies, long dependent on fossil fuels, are rapidly turning to renewable energy to answer the mounting demand for electricity in the fast-developing region.  In Indonesia, StarEnergy looks to capitalize on native geothermal resources, made possible by the more than 100 active volcanoes that ...

Countries that rely on large hydropower dams for their electricity suffer higher levels of poverty, corruption and debt than other nations, a study has found. The study by the University of Sussex and the International School of Management in Germany compared the security, political governance, economic development and ...

Lao villagers moved by government order from their homes 10 years ago to make way for a showcase hydropower project have new houses, schools, and clinics in their resettlement areas, but are still left without access to fishing areas or adequate land to farm, sources ...

While Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam have accepted a prior agreement on the proposed 770 megawatt hydropower project in Laos’ Xayaboury Province, they have jointly released the statement calling on the Lao government to make every effort to address and mitigate potential adverse cross-border impacts of ...

An activist who has been fighting for years against the planned dredging of sections of the Mekong River for greater shipping access has called on the authorities to clarify the status of the project, which was supposed to have been cancelled following a meeting between ...

The Mekong has another point of origin: the Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia. Each year life springs from the lake, mostly in the form of a massive fish population that migrates to the far reaches of the Mekong system both upstream and downstream. This annual ...

Laos’ deputy prime minister has identified poor soil analysis for a fatal hydropower dam collapse, often described as the country’s worst flooding in decades. At a concluding environmental sector annual meeting early this month in Vientiane, Deputy Prime Minister Bounthong Chitmany, who also heads the ...

As the unpopular project sits in limbo, the government has to choose between upsetting China and enraging its own people. Keep reading ...

Chinese companies are pushing to resume destructive dam projects, ignoring a key assessment. Much media attention in Myanmar is focussed on China’s apparent efforts to revive the stalled Myitsone dam, its role in advising the Myanmar government on developing a new hydropower strategy white paper, and ...

Instead of requesting additional data used in the building of Pak Lay hydroelectric dam in Laos, Dr Le Anh Tuan, a Mekong River expert and deputy head of the Institute for Climate Change Research at Can Tho University, believes that it would be better to ...