ASEAN’s Largest Wind Farm To Be Built In Laos, Energy To Go To Vietnam

C: Peter Franken - Unsplash

A Thai company is planning to construct ASEAN’s largest ever wind farm – in neighboring Laos.

Energy giant BCPG Public Company has recently announced plans to develop their most ambitious project yet in largely rural Laos as a result of “rising demand for energy in the region” according to local sources.

BCPG has announced it will invest around US$ 840 million in constructing the facility, with a targeted eventual capacity of 600 megawatts (MW), over a 64,000 hectare site in the south of the country, believed to be just east of the Thai border region of Ubon Ratchathani

The energy produced is then expected to be sold to a third nation – Vietnam – with Hanoi’s state-run ‘Electricity Vietnam’ (EVN) the beneficiary of all energy produced at the site; Vietnam’s border with Laos and the booming central Vietnamese city of Da Nang both a relatively short distance east of the proposed site.

C: Claudio Pavione – Unsplash

Southern Laos has long been targeted by renewables companies although potential profit returns were seen as slim until the agreement to sell energy on to Vietnam could be realised.

A formal PPA (power purchase agreement) will be finalised this October according to reports out of Thailand.

When complete and fully operational in 2023, BCPG will own 45% of the facility through a subsidiary named Impact Energy Asia Development Co, with the remaining 55% to be held by Impact Electrons Siam.

Primarily active in Laos and Japan, BCPG was only established in 2015, before being listed on the Thailand stock exchange market a year later.

“Through five years of stable and sustainable growth, BCPG has been keen on business expansion in the clean energy business to create value for every sector. Experiences and expertise gained from the investments in various countries will definitely bring about the Company’s growth over 75% in the next five years” a company executive said.

Mark Buckton

Mark is a journalism vet of 20 years with most of those years spent in Tokyo, Japan, as a columnist for The Japan Times and numerous other publications. His work has appeared on CNN, in the BBC, NPR, and in several dozen other media forms and publications across five continents.