Energy
Solar Surge Threatens Hydro Future on Mekong
Thousands of megawatts of wind and solar energy contracts in the Mekong region of Southeast Asia have been signed, seriously challenging the financial viability of major hydropower projects on the river, an energy expert told a water conference last week.Buoyed by a recent Thai government ...
VOA Khmer
On the Mekong, questions arise over impact of favoring hydropower
On a bucolic stretch of the Mekong, near Cambodia’s northern border, people can tell you all about hydropower. The dam is why fish catches have been dropping, steadily, for the past few years. The dam is why so many young men have taken up logging ...
Abigail Seiff
Axing of energy licences rubbished
The Waste to Energy Trade Association (WETA), a body under the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), has denounced policymakers for curbing the development of waste-to-energy projects, saying alternative energy sources are the key to reaching the government’s goals of low emissions and energy independence.Keep reading ...
Yuthana Praiwan
Pact calls for talks before major Mekong projects
Leaders of the lower Mekong basin countries – Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam – agreed yesterday (April,4) to continue implementing rules and procedures for water use under the Mekong River Commission (MRC) in order to regulate controversial projects on Southeast Asia’s longest river.Keep reading ...
The Nation Reporter
Mekong River dams ‘will harm food security’
Study claims hydropower development will also increase poverty in the region. Hydropower development on the Mekong River will aggravate food insecurity and poverty in the region and reverse the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a study says.Keep reading ...
Pratch Rujivanarom
Give renewable energy a chance
The Minister of Energy announced this week the government will stop purchasing electricity from renewable power projects for the next five years. The reasoning is that such projects have caused retail electricity tariffs to jump by 20-25 satangs per unit, and that the electricity system ...
Sopitsuda Tongsopit
Asia's energy challenge
Asia’s rapid development over the past four decades has transformed the region’s stature in the world economy, lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and creating new opportunities for future prosperity. Keep reading ...
Tanyatorn Tongwaranan
Mekong researchers seek ways to improve dams
Researchers backed by multi-million-dollar grants from NASA are heading to Southeast Asia’s Mekong River region to find ways to improve dams so they are less harmful to people and the environment.Researchers from Michigan State University (MSU) will spend three years analysing sites in the lower ...
Thomson Reuters Foundation
China Defends Dam Building on Mekong River as Activists Head to Court
BEIJING – Officials from southwest China’s Yunnan province have defended a plan to build a dam in the region as “fully legally compliant”, after an environment group took developers of the project to court last month for violating laws.Keep reading ...
Siam Cement looks to reservoirs for solar power
BANGKOK–Thailand’s Siam Cement Group has developed a solar generating system designed to float on reservoirs, which are commonly used to serve factories in the country’s predominantly flat central region. The system is aimed at companies seeking new energy sources for their operations.Keep reading ...
