Renewable energy production

A report released this month by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) suggests that due to Cambodia’s high suitability to solar power, energy from solar panels is a viable and sustainable source of power that could lead to energy independence. ...

Commercial biogas plants will be installed across the Kingdom to provide electricity to rural areas that are off the national grid, as government and development agencies look to reach the 38 per cent of villages with no power supply. ...

An intergovernmental body that supervises development along the Mekong River must address regional concerns over the controversial Don Sahong dam project in Laos at its annual consultation meeting next week, an environmental watchdog said Thursday. ...

While it may be unpopular, nearly everyone has had to do homework. Yet for those living in communities with no or intermittent access to electricity, the ability to study at home is sometimes a luxury. In Cambodia, French non-profit association Lumières sur le Mékong – ...

Residents of Stung Treng province who are facing eviction due to the Lower Sesan II hydropower project accused local officials yesterday of threatening to arrest them if they don’t refrain from hanging banners reading “Would rather die than leave” on their homes. ...

With 35 nations signing on as founding members, Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has a reported US$50 billion foundation from which it plans to spur infrastructure growth in developing Asian countries with projects that include hydroelectric facilities.​ ...

Ethnic minority villagers who live in the planned reservoir zone of the Lower Sesan II hydropower project along the Sesan and Srepok rivers have said they will not move from their homes unless the dam company and authorities pay for the removal of their ancestors’ ...

Cambodia’s largest hydropower project has been redesigned, leading to concerns from environmental groups, but a company official who confirmed the “design optimisation” over the weekend insisted that the Lower Sesan II dam will provide clean, safe energy and have few downstream impacts. Ren Zhonghua, deputy director ...

Rights advocates have called for construction of the Lower Sesan II hydropower dam in Cambodia’s Stung Treng province to be halted until new environmental and social impact assessments can be carried following changes allegedly made to the project’s plans. ...

The development of two dams on the Lower Mekong River in Laos may have potentially devastating impact on the food security and livelihoods of 60 million people in the area, an international environmental group said. ...

The Koh Kong Provincial Court has agreed to a request to delay the questioning of an anti-dam activist accused of illegally felling trees to build a community center in the Areng Valley. Ven Vorn—an ethnic Chong who has joined local protests organized by the NGO Mother ...

Electricite du Cambodge director Keo Rattanak said on Saturday that the stalled Chinese-backed hydropower project in Koh Kong province’s Areng Valley has set back Cambodia’s plans to become energy self-sufficient. Rattanak, who was speaking at a gathering for soldiers in the Odar Meanchey province, singled out ...

Villagers in Koh Kong province’s Areng Valley, the site of a proposed hydropower dam opposed by most of the local ethnic minority Chong, say police deleted their photos and video of a visit by CPP lawmaker Ay Khorn on Friday to promote the project’s potential ...

Hundreds of indigenous villagers on Monday threatened to continue protests against the developer of a controversial hydropower dam in Cambodia if it does not halt construction of the project, which they say will negatively affect their cultural traditions and livelihoods. ...

Villagers in Stung Treng province displeased local authorities on Saturday by holding a traditional ceremony calling upon a powerful local spirit to curse those behind the construction of the Lower Sesan 2 dam. ...

After the government deported Spanish environmental activist Alex Gonzalez-Davidson on Monday, the opposition CNRP has called on the Interior Ministry to turn its attention to thousands of Vietnamese immigrants living in the country illegally. ...

Conservation groups have called on Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to press Lao President Choummaly Sayasone to postpone the construction of the much-criticized Don Sahong dam project on the Mekong River in Laos. ...

Conservation groups have called on Prime Minister Hun Sen to address “the elephant in the room” and lobby Laos’ president to postpone his country’s controversial Don Sahong dam project when the leaders meet later this week. Arriving on Thursday, Laotian Head of State Choummaly Sayasone will ...

Global consulting group Poyry has been awarded a consulting assignment for the construction of Cambodia’s 400-MW Lower Se San 2 hydropower plant. Awarded by developer Hydro Power Lower Se San 2 Company Ltd., the assignment includes independent engineering services including construction monitoring and inspection throughout the ...

Less than a week after Laos declared its “sovereign right” to develop hydropower regardless of neighbouring countries’ objections, the Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) gathered an “extraordinary meeting” to stress the importance of sustainable waterways. During the two-day discussions in Pakse, Laos which concluded yesterday, the US ...

In the government’s latest defense of a proposed dam in the heart of the sparsely developed Cardamom Mountains, Prime Minister Hun Sen in a letter downplayed the impact the project would have on the hundreds of ethnic minority families it would displace and touted its ...

Just before the regional consultation period for Laos’ Don Sahong dam comes to a head at a final meeting in Vietnam on Sunday, Laos government officials are already espousing plans and timelines for the project’s completion. ...

Special Rapporteur Surya Subedi has been called on to investigate and seek justice for human rights violations caused by the development of two large-scale hydropower dams in Cambodia. ...

Deep in the forest, about an hour from Stung Treng’s provincial capital through a rough and difficult road, just over half of the houses in an ethnic minority village have been tagged with bright orange spray paint saying, “LSS2”. According to a 2010 environmental impact ...