Renewable energy in Laos

In 2008, Laos produced 0.05 quadrillion BTUs (QBTUs) of primary energy, an increase of 0 QBTUs over the prior year and a compound growth rate of 3.17% over a 5 year period.

Primary energy consumption meanwhile increased by 9.29% over the prior year to 0.04 QBTUs, equating to 7.05 million BTUs per capita which places Laos into the 82nd percentile of countries worldwide for per capita primary energy consumption.

Laos’s total electricity capacity has increased on an annual compound basis by 6.01% over the last 20 years to 723 megawatts (MW) in 2008. In the last year, the total installed capacity base neither increased nor decreased.

Total renewable energy capacity accounts for 93.08% of this total installed capacity base whilst renewable energy sources excluding hydropower account for 0%.

Total capacity did not increase in the last year whilst Hydroelectricity Energy added the most capacity in the last 5 years, reaching 673 MW in 2008.

Total electricity generation meanwhile climbed 10% over the last year to 3.98 billion kilowatthours (bn kWh) in 2008 with the largest source for electricity generation being Hydroelectricity (92.46% of total net generation).

Conventional sources including conventional thermal (coal, petroleum, gas), nuclear power and hydro pumped storage accounted for 7.54% of total electricity generated, down from 9.12% 5 years previously.

Conventional Energy sources represented 6.92% of total installed capacity in Laos in 2008, a decrease of 0 percentage points over a 5 year period.

Conventional thermal energy had an installed capacity base of 50 MW in 2008, a change of 0 MW over the previous year and a 0% change on a compound basis over a 5 year period. Conventional thermal energy has seen its share of total installed capacity decrease from 6.92% in 2004 to 6.92% in 2008. Conventional Thermal Energy generated 0.3 billion kilowatthours of electricity in 2008, equating to 6 billion kilowatthours of electricity per million kilowatts of capacity.

Renewable Energy sources represented 93.08% of total installed capacity in Laos in 2008, an increase of 0 percentage points over a 5 year period.

This renewable energy capacity generated 3.68 billion kilowatthours of electricity (92.46% of the total), primarily from Hydroelectricity (100% of the 3.68 bn kWh generated).

Hydroelectricity had an installed capacity base of 673 MW in 2008, a change of 0 MW over the previous year. It’s share of total installed capacity increased from 93.08% in 2004 to 93.08% in 2008 and it’s share of renewable installed capacity remained unchanged at 100% in 2008.

Hydroelectricity generated 3.68 billion kilowatthours of electricity in 2008, equating to 92.46% of the total electricity generated. This is equivalent to 5.47 billion kilowatthours of electricity per million kilowatts of capacity, which was the highest ratio amongst renewable energy sources.

Laos has 0.25% of the total regional capacity for Hydroelectricity and ranks at #81 in the world for Hydroelectricity installed capacity.

In 2008, total carbon dioxide emissions in Laos reached 1.23 million Metric Tonnes (mn MT), a compound increase of 1.45% over a 5 year period. Laos’s total represented 0.01% of total regional emissions and 0% of total world emissions.

On a per capita basis meanwhile, Laos ranked at #185 worldwide, with per capita emissions falling on 2007 by 0 metric tonnes to 0.2 metric tonnes.

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