Profit model of Laos energy storage power station

Lao PDR's energy primarily comes from coal, oil, hydropower, and 'others' (including biomass, solar, and electricity for export). The combined shares of coal and oil are expected to fall to about 20% of the primary energy supply by 2050 under the carbon-neutral scenario.

Energy policy in Lao PDR has gained much public attention since the establishment of the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) in 2006. Under MEM, the country's energy policy has evolved from a singular power sector policy to broader policies supporting the development of a sustainable and environmentally friendly energy sector.

Although Lao PDR exports electricity to neighbouring countries, it still has a very high importation dependency for transport as well as commercial and residential consumption (e.g. 100% importation of finished oil products like gasoline, diesel, and kerosene).

Lao PDR should accelerate the penetration of variable renewables as well as other carbon-free (e.g. hydro, geothermal, biomass, nuclear, carbon dioxide-free hydrogen, and CCUS) and negative emissions technologies and forest carbon sinks.

For Lao PDR, the marginal abatement cost is predicted to drop from US$434/tonne of carbon dioxide (tCO2) in 2050 to US$188/tCO2 in 2060. In general, this decarbonisation cost is lower than that of the ASEAN average almost by half (Figure 1.5).

Lao PDR's Power Generation The country's great potential for hydro, solar, wind, and biomass could allow Lao PDR to maximise its electricity net export on the ASEAN Power Grid. It could have 45 terawatt-hours (TWh) of expected capacity by 2030, 73 TWh by 2040, and 161 TWh by 2050 under the carbon-neutral scenario (Figure 1.2).