FFRC - Mekong Region Sustainable Energy Projects

Know your power!

2012-01-23T21:40:00.000-08:00

Mekong Energy and Ecology Network (MEE Net) organised, in cooperation with Finland Futures Research Centre and Chulalongkorn University, an international conference ”Know Your Power: Towards a Participatory Approach for Sustainable Power Development in the Mekong Region” in Bangkok on 18-19 January 2012. The aim of the conference was to examine the interlinkages between energy and development by analysing the multitude of actors, their roles and influence within the power sector. The conference was attended by researchers, NGO representatives, government officials, journalists and donors. The participants came from all the Mekong region countries, as well as from Europe, US and Australia.

Simultaneously and partly overlapping with the energy conference, MEE Net organised together with Thai Broadcasting Service a Mekong Energy Journalist Workshop to train journalists from the region to know and to report about energy issues, and to network with each other, and with conference participants. Journalists from Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam and China attended this 5-day workshop.

In the Know Your Power conference there were more than 25 presentations given on different topics relating to energy in the Mekong region. One of them was researcher Chuenchom Greacen who discussed about power sector planning, taking Thailand’s official Power Development Planning (PDP) process as an example. She, together with her colleagues, had developed an alternative PDP for Thailand, “PDP2012” which showed that energy security in Thailand can be maintained without electricity imports, nuclear and new power plans.

Chom’s presentation, as well as all the other presentations can be downloaded from the MEE Net’s website http://www.meenet.org/

Informing and influencing development policy - SUMERNET meeting

2012-01-23T21:29:00.000-08:00

The Sustainable Mekong Research Network (SUMERNET) is a programme funded by Swedish government that intends to build a long-term research network that informs and influences policy development on sustainable development issues in the Mekong region. The program was launched in 2005 and it is now in its second phase (2010-2012).

At the time when the program was established there was a generally acknowledged gap between the pro-development perspectives of governments in the Mekong region which were often supported by multilateral donor organisations and fuelled by trade liberalisation, and the perspectives of NGO campaigners, in many cases representing local resistance to specific development projects. Many development agencies voiced their concern that an integrated approach was needed, for a greater diversity of perspectives on development to be incorporated in regional planning and policy. SUMERNET was established to support and promote the use of scientific evidence in policy making, and thus contribute to sustainable development.

SUMERNET held its annual meeting in Bangkok 11-13 January, 2012, where also Finland Futures Research Centre was present, even though it is not formally a member of SUMERNET. The meeting focused on research that is informing and influencing development policy and planning in the Mekong region. In the research partner meeting the researchers, boundary partners and other stakeholders of SUMERNET’s 10 on-going research projects shared information on a number of critical development challenges in the Mekong region. The research projects fall under 5 research themes; Ecosystem services, Trans-boundary issues, Energy & climate change, Poverty and livelihoods, and Urbanisation. These research projects are being implemented by almost 30 national teams, comprising nearly 100 researchers across the Mekong region and Southeast Asia. They are under different stage of implementation but all are to be completed by the end of 2012.

For more details on SUMERNET and the research projects, please visit http://www.sumernet.org/

Focus Group Discussions in Laos

2011-10-10T02:58:00.000-07:00

Last winter and spring a series of qualitative focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted in Laos as a part of the INES -project. The aim was to provide data on rural and urban resources and livelihood strategies in Laos that would support climate sensitive and sustainable natural resource policies, food security and poverty reduction. Together 14 FGDs were conducted in 6 provinces and in Vientiane capital (the picture below from Hadkhor village in Luang Prabang province). The criteria for selecting FGD participants required that they are in charge of making daily decisions on energy and food consumption in their households. The FGDs were conducted in Laotian and were translated into English by Bouasavanh Khanthaphat, who also moderated the FGDs.

The questions were divided into 4 categories: livelihood and food security; change in livelihood condition; coping strategies; and household energy management. I’ve had the interesting task to examine the data from FGDs more closely and here are some findings.

Together 10 FGDs were conducted in rural villages (both on- and off-grid) and groups comprised both men and women. The main topics were coping strategies, livelihoods, energy consumption and changes in these. In on-grid villages people have more resilience to changes in the environment, livelihoods and weather patterns. On-grid villages usually have irrigation systems for rice paddies and more electrical appliances to ease the work. On the other hand good connections to other areas provide more earning and consumption possibilities. In recent years rural villages have faced many man-made environmental changes. Dam projects have had a negative effect on fisheries and plantation projects have accelerated deforestation. Non-timber products are more difficult to find these days.

4 FGDs were conducted in Vientiane capital and there were separate groups for both sexes. All the interviewees had migrated from rural areas less than 5 years ago. The most important reasons for migration were better job opportunities, but many interviewees also wanted to see and experience new things and city life. Livelihoods in Vientiane are not as dependent on environment as life in villages. Earned income is spent to food, to gather savings and to help relatives. The life in the city was not found to be as comfortable as expected, but most of the migrants were planning to stay in Vientiane.

Signs of integration.

2011-08-25T22:19:00.000-07:00

I arrived in Vientiane a couple of weeks ago. The city greeted me with heavy rain and a thunderstorm. Obviously it was a very heavy thunderstorm as they said in the local newspaper the next day that two elephants had been killed in the outskirts of the city by the lightning (!?). Now the weather has improved though and we haven’t had any rain this week (so far). One can hope the rainy season is over. Wishful thinking?

It was great to come back to Vientiane- this time long term as I’m planning to stay here for the next year and a half. In comparison to other Asian capitals with millions of inhabitants and endless traffic chaos I must say Vientiane is a quite atypical Asian capital with a slow beat and almost a sleepy feeling (although the number of vehicles has increased a lot just during the past few years here as well).

A few signs of slight integration into the Lao way of life are probably 1) wearing a sin which is a traditional skirt Lao women wear and can be found in various colours and embroideries. Yesterday I got my first sin done and it’s a beautiful sin! 2) Walking under an umbrella, not because it’s raining, but because it’s sunny. The 3^rd step for me will be learning the language. On Monday I’ll start a 4 week crash course studying 3 hrs a day, 5 days a week. That will just be the beginning of it but I’m hoping I’ll get some basics. Luckily I have Dorn, Boua and Bouasy, plus night guards to practice with!

Work-wise I’ve so far mostly been fixing all kind of pratical issues related to the office and bureaucracy. Met some people from other organizations working in the same field, and on Wednesday I attended ERIA’s (Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia) ”1st East Asian Summit Energy Efficiency Conference” which was hosted by the Ministry of Energy and Mines of Lao PDR. The conference was held at Lao Plaza and there were probably around 200 participants from various countries around East Asia. It was interesting to learn how the East Asian countries with varying levels of economic development have coped with energy efficiency issues. The presentations of the conference elaborated the different energy efficiency policies some East Asian countries had implemented, which I hope other countries can learn from. The conference also draw scenarios on future energy demand in the region, which obviously is increasing due to economic development, as well as pointed out challenges and opportunities for energy efficiency. In most countries energy efficiency was important firstly because of energy security issues and economic development. On 3rd place was climate change. One of the presentations (by UN ESCAP) underlined also the social aspects of energy and energy efficiency and its importance for development issues. Energy efficiency was also seen as an important source of energy as improving energy efficiency will give more energy out of the same amountof primary energy. Lao PDR’s hydro power potential was highlighted during the conference and the country was recognized as “the battery of the region” having substantial reserves and potential to feed the region with renewable energy..

Phob kan mei! (see you soon)

Hanna

Workshop: Climate change from a Southern perspective

2011-08-24T05:01:00.000-07:00

Last week a group of us from the FFRC team took part in a workshop organized by Kepa, an NGO that functions as a service base for Finnish development NGOs. Titled “Climate change from a Southern perspective”, the workshop presented the view from the grassroots level of how climate change and the increased amount of climate change projects and funding have affected local NGOs and civil society in the South. These perspectives were delivered to us by people from four of Kepa’s regional offices in Nicaragua, Tanzania, Mozambique and the Mekong region. Besides hearing of the climate policies and actions of these countries, the workshop also presented the concerns of local NGOs and civil society. The diversity of all the countries presented and their differing circumstances make it quite a challenge to generalize results, however, a few themes did stand out.

A cross-cutting concern voiced by all regional offices was the simultaneous challenge and opportunity presented by the increased amount of climate change funds available. On the one hand, there are large amounts of money available from both development banks and bilateral initiatives. Then again, it appears that national climate change policy planning debates are still very top-down, and civil society participation occurs late, if at all. The processes tend to be donor or money-driven, which raises the question of diverting attention away from more pressing issues, for example land grabbing in the Cambodian case. Finally, a large part of the money available is intended for mitigation projects, and especially local advocacy work receives little funding.

Another concern filtered from the various countries was the lack of knowledge at all levels of administration and public awareness. For example, the representatives from Tanzania and Mozambique told us several answers to the question “What is climate change?”, ranging from ideas about drought and floods to confusion with ozone depletion. The confusion over the causes and consequences of climate change is heightened by the lack of reliable data. In many cases, climate change seems to have become an umbrella term under which to pinpoint all local environmental problems.

Despite all the concerns voiced, there arose possibilities for local NGOs and civil society. Since a large part of climate finance projects are still at an initial level, the opportunities for influencing their direction still exist. However, many voiced concerns that local civil society would merely be used to legitimize government policies or implement projects as advised by international donors.

Specifically from the Mekong region, we heard the insights of Timo Kuronen from Kepa’s regional office in Bangkok. Timo commented on the difficulty to find information on climate change funding in the region. Certainly the rapidly increasing amount of funds, especially to Clean Development Mechanism projects in Thailand and Vietnam, affect this. Otherwise the civil society concerns voiced by Timo differed greatly based on national circumstances. For example, Cambodian NGOs were mainly concerned about climate change projects diverting attention and funds away from more pressing issues. In Thailand, the active discussions on climate justice by the Thai Working Group on Climate Justice (TCJ) succeeded in pushing local mitigation effects into the agenda of the Thailand’s National Master Plan on Climate Change (2010-2019).

On the whole the workshop gave us at FFRC an overview of what is currently happening and how local civil societies are reacting. Based on the active questions and discussions, I’m sure we all left with new information and a will to attend more events like this.

A Busy Maytiane Week

2011-06-08T03:38:00.000-07:00

Two seminars were arranged in Vientiane with the cooperation of Finland Futures Research Centre and Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) of Lao PDR, within the last week of May 2011. First one was the final FREPLA (Future Economy and Policies of Laos 2020) seminar, and it was followed by the kick-off workshop of INES, Interlinkages Between Energy and Livelihoods. I and the rest of the FFRC team present had the pleasure to take part in both, even though my personal contribution has been a great deal bigger for the INES project.

The FREPLA seminar was the fifth and the final to be held. Besides the FFRC staff, the participants attended were mainly government officials. Topics covered were diverse: from indicators of sustainable development to energy power plants and demand predictions. The future-orientated issues, forecasts and plans, seemed to interest the most and raise a fair amount of discussion.

INES workshop was the first one of the project. The participants represented various departments on provincial level. An interesting twist in the workshop was the fact that every presentation, question and comment was simultaneously translated into either Lao or English, depending on the language of the original speaker. Luckily, we were blessed with the exact right person for the job (many thanks to Dorn!), and the conversation flew smoothly.

A number of very important issues were taken up and discussed. Importance of reliable data availability was recognized. Consequently, organizing and funding continuous, systematic data collection was seen as a key priority in terms of future planning and preparing. Some practical means for the reduction of energy consumption were also suggested. The need for training for energy and population modeling was brought up several times which, in fact, happens to be the next step of the project.

In addition to the organisers and participants, the two seminars attracted the local press. Vientiane Times wrote two articles, one of each assembly, on top of which a picture of Jyrki Luukkanen handing out the laptops to the INES participants was published separately. Evidence of the latter, originally published on the 1st of June 2011, is attached below. We also made it to the news of Lao National Television! Unfortunately though, everyone in our team missed the big show on-air.

All in all, our team and all our local partners had a busy but rewarding week in Vientiane this May. In order to get a deeper insight on the topics, all the presentations can be viewed and downloaded at Publications - Powerpoint Presentations on our Mekong-website.

Setting up the office in Vientiane

2011-05-09T19:34:00.000-07:00

As Finland Futures Research Centre opened the office in the capital of Laos, Vientiane, I had the honor to be the one setting up all the practical matters in the house. The house is used for office and living purposes and there will always be staff in the house. I arrived to the city 30th of March and was ready to pick up the keys for the office next day. It is my first time in Laos, and the first evening already I really liked the city. Streets were full of street vendors, steam rising from the pots, Lao language echoing in my ears, warm wind from the Mekong – they all infiltrated into my mind. Calm, but at the same time lively atmosphere fascinated me! Quite often the first impression is the one that counts and that happened to me as well – I still feel the same way! During the first two days I also remember thinking that I could not see any rats on the streets, and because of that I considered the city to be very exceptional Asian city in this sense. Very little I knew that time.

First days I was busy to shop the articles we needed for living in the house, such as basic things like sheets, towels and kitchen utilities. Shopping in a new city is always time consuming but fun! Quickly I got to know these helpful and friendly people of Laos. As an example, a very helpful worker in the mall unpacked and set up the whole tent-like mosquito net for us - just to see the size of it - and eventually it appeared to be too small for our office beds. It felt almost a crime not to buy it as he made such a hard work with presenting it for us. I learned quite soon also the most important sentence in here: “baw pen nyang”; “It is ok”, or “Never mind”. I was also amazed about the supply of the goods – I did not expect it to be so easy to get the things we had listed in Finland.

After staying a couple of days in the house, I found out that in addition to me and my colleague, there were others living in the house as well. Rats. I did not see them on the streets – maybe because they were all living in the house with me! One morning a rat was climbing up the stairs when I was coming downstairs. I think we both got equally frightened – and maybe the rat heard Finnish swore words for the first time in its life! Later I and my colleague met a rat also in the kitchen – poor rat was so confused that it ran first towards me and then my colleague – causing of course a lot of jumping and screaming in the kitchen. After these a couple of involuntary meetings, I decided to offer poisonous dinner for those little animals. It was a success –they seemed to enjoy the meal I prepared! I stayed tuned for the results. I knew the disadvantages of the poison, as when using it, I could not be in charge of the recycling process of the remains. So, as I was afraid of, it turned out that the rats were killed inside the walls, and I think it is easy for you to imagine the smell of a rotten rat body in almost +40C degrees heat. Luckily the worms are very active in here, so the smell of the house was gone in a few days. So, for now, I declare the Finland Futures Research Centre office in Vientiane as a rat-free area! And at the same time I am being a bit afraid that they will return…

World Bank Newsletter: Powering the People of Cambodia

2011-02-23T04:29:00.000-08:00

The World Bank has produced a newsletter on its energy projects in Cambodia: with headlines such as Power to People. The newsletter from December 2010 can be downloaded here. It offers interesting reading on the achievements and targets of World Bank’s rural electrification programs in Cambodia. Interestingly the main stage seems to be set for grid extensions and grid connections whereas the off-grid elements and small-scale renewable energy are not receiving much attention.

World Bank supported Rural Electrification Fund seem to have performed well in its new connection program in terms of reaching the targets. At the same time the off-grid components appear to be lacking behind. But these aspects are not explored in the newsletter. Both the grant assistance for solar companies and for the small hydropower and biomass have been almost complete failures. Last year the solar program was revised and Cambodia started to follow Laos model on solar home systems i.e. a bulk purchase model with a several years payment scheme for the users. The ambitious plan is to have 12 000 installments by January 2012.

The slow progress on sustainable renewable energy solutions is unfortunate as Cambodia is truly at the crossroads. The current situation of low electrification and lack of more traditional centralized gird systems could offer a chance for “leapfrogging”. This would require ambitious and serious thinking of how to enable and empower small and very small power producers. A promising base for this direction has been laid by a report Powering 21st Century Cambodia with Decentralized Generation authored by Grynne Ryder.

Under our DREAM-project we continue to assess the reasons for failures and success of renewable energy projects in Cambodia and Laos.

Building Partnership for Implementing Renewable Energy Efficiency Projects in the Mekong Region-forum

2010-10-28T10:50:00.000-07:00

In October 26-27 we attended a regional forum on ”Building Partnership for Implementing Renewable Energy Efficiency Projects in the Mekong Region”. The forum was organized in the framework of the EEP Mekong (Energy and Environment Programme) supported by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and Nordic Development Fund. The event was hosted by the Ministry of Energy and Mines of Lao PDR.

In the opening session of the Forum the Finnish Under-Secretary of State, Ritva Koukku-Ronde, the Vice-Minister of Energy and Mines of Lao PDR, Somboun Rasasombath and the Deputy Director of Nordic Development Fund, Leena Klossner, each held a speech.

Among the attendants of the Forum were of course the teams of the seven EEP Mekong projects getting funding in the first round of the EEP Mekong- one of which being our INES- project which Jyrki Luukkanen presented in an EEP project session. In addition, the policies and strategies for renewable energy and energy efficiency of the four Mekong countries were presented in a country report session. Nordic technology providers were also represented at the Forum and a Public Private Partnership (PPP) session was also held to discuss the challenges and achievements of the PPP. In addition, there was also a panel discussion on bio-fuels.

The Forum was a great opportunity to network with other operators in the region and to learn about the other six first round EEP Mekong projects.

FREPLA project on Vientiane Times' Business pages

2010-08-30T19:59:00.000-07:00

Future Resource Economy and Policies in Laos till the Year 2020 (FREPLA2020) Project Seminar held on 27th of August 2010 in Vientiane, Laos was referred to on 31st August on Vientiane Times' Business section

FREPLA2020 Project organized a high level seminar on resource economy policies and natural resources management. It gathered several Laotian Ministries and representatives from donor organizations to discuss macro-economic development and energy use scenarios of Laos, policies, challenges and needed development policy portfolios related to different sectors and natural resources management among other things.

The potential power of radical ICT system audit in the Mekong River countries: Towards better ICT infrastructures and resource management systems

2010-08-26T09:07:00.000-07:00

In this blog we will discuss the requirements of information and communication technology (ICT) architecture and the governance mechanisms that can connect business and environmental management processes and analytics to data and applications.

Remarkable and innovative advances have occurred during the past 3 decades, especially in the electronics industry and informatics. Digital technology has provided a strong platform for digital products and e-business solutions, which are easily reproduced, easily distributed and subject to boundless modification, extension and recombination. The Internet has become integrated into the lives of many citizens and to every day’s life.

The World Wide Web and related information technologies are becoming primary tools of economic production, civic participation and political involvement, and define the economic, social and political landscape.

Today the new ICT architecture extends beyond the corporations and governments. We can say that all corporations and governments are so called extended organizations because of the Internet and associated digital infrastructures. Especially Internet has changed many things of modern management, also in environmental management.

Digital economy has many innovative “e”s, not only e-commerce. First, e is for electronic – the internet revolution that is changing the way we live, work and do business. E-commerce changes the balance of power between consumers and companies. The most obvious benefit is cheaper products and services as consumers learn to compare prices at the click of a mouse.

Secondly, e is for enterprise – the dynamism and creativity that drives the new economy.

Thirdly, e is for environment – the scope to use new technologies to reduce our impact on the natural world. In the best case knowledge economy helps us to increase dematerialization and immaterialization. E-commerce could help to cut energy and resource use, and improve environmental productivity and eco-efficiency.

Virtual traffic can replace real traffic. In many big cities of Asia traffic is a real environmental problem. From this perspective new ICT based communication and interaction tools are producing ecological and economic benefits. With the right policy framework, e-business could create more efficient logistics and distribution systems.

E-commerce has high potential for significant gains in resource productivity of Mekong River countries. Fourthly, e is for equity – the potential of the internet to strengthen communities and build social cohesion. All sorts of networks are being strengthened by the Internet.

What we can expect to happen in the future is the Wikinomics of resource management. As governments develop specifications for their new ICT architecture, they need to deal with several realities. Such realities are software packages, intellectual property rights, proprietary applications, systems, databases and virtual processes.

If governments want to get full value added from their ICT infrastructures they should perform an audit of the existing ICT systems and develop an understanding of the magnitude of the mitigating to better and more sustainable performance level. This kind of ICT auditing could create larger capacity to link large systems and multiple databases of the governments.
Probably this kind of audit could lead us to better resource management systems and better capacity building process.

If the Mekong River countries could improve their ICT infrastructures, many practical problems could be solved. Also better governance and institutional capacity performance could be reached.

In the World Bank report of “Natural Resource Management for Sustainable Development”, which was Lao PDR Development Report in 2009, this strategic aspect of government and institutional capacity is strongly underlined. Especially a framework for vertical collaboration across central and sub-national levels of government could be developed by better ICT infrastructures.

It is time to discuss about sustainable knowledge society challenges in the Mekong River countries.

Future challenges of energy pricing

2010-08-26T05:38:00.001-07:00

One challenging issue in energy policy is pricing energy utilities. Price is a key variable of energy demand and supply in Mekong river countries. Selling energy utilities is dependent on marketing activities of energy. Marketing is a discipline of four coequal elements: the product, its promotion, its distribution and its pricings.

Marketing consists of 4 ps. Pricing is the company´s attempt to capture some of the value in the profits it earns. If effective product development, promotion and distribution sow the seeds of energy business, effective pricing is the harvest.

It is quite interesting and puzzling why many energy companies fail to price effectively even when they otherwise employ very effective marketing strategies. Price is of primary importance to energy companies. Energy companies must cover costs, to maintain cash flow and to achieve a target rate of return.

On the other hand, they must think how customers response to the prices of energy utilities. If prices are too high, demand for energy utilities will be weak. If prices are too low, demand for energy utilities is too strong and some customers are left without energy utilities. In real life markets are not in the equilibrium as conventional micro economic theories assume.

The customers´ goal is to obtain the most value for their money. For commodities, that often means buying the cheapest offering. For differentiated energy product, that may mean paying a little more for the perceived superiority of a particular brand.

A few pennies´ differences in price may be of great importance to a energy company selling millions of units, while being of little consequence to a customer who buys just one unit. Yet that will not stop potential customers from rejecting any price that is a few pennies more than they are willing to pay. It is important to understand that customers are not concerned with the seller´s need to cover production costs, to improve cash flow or to meet a target rate of return. Their concern is to get their money´s worth.

In the Mekong River countries one key future challenge will be intelligent pricing of energy utilities. Intelligent pricing strategy of energy utilities depends on production costs, price sensitivity and energy market competition. These three factors determine an energy product´s pricing environment. Energy companies can adopt product-driven focus or customer-driven focus in their pricing decisions.

Intelligent pricing begins starts with a better understanding of the economic underpinnings of cost and value of energy utilities. There should be more analytical research in this field because the success of energy sector investments depends critically on price intelligence of energy products and services.

Risk intelligence challenges in the Mekong River countries

2010-08-26T05:31:00.000-07:00

Risk is the possibility of loss or reversal – or gain or advance. The risks that matter are the ones that pose a problem in our decision-making. We are surrounded with risks either with financial or non-financial. One of the biggest challenges in environmental decision-making is to develop better tools for risk intelligence.

In the Mekong River countries a very big challenge is to manage many risks associated with river basin management. Many production activities and markets depend on the Mekong River. Agriculture, hydropower supply and fishery are such activities. There are many business risks associated with natural resource management. Typically we can talk about production (or supply side risks) and marketing risks (demand-side risks).

In risk management it is important to identify different kinds of risks. For example, typical production risks are operating risks, supply chain risks, technology risks, workforce risks and asset risks.

Operation risks are happening when there are control or compliance failures or partner coordination failures. Supply chain risks are like supplier failure or political rapture. Supply chain risk is also key cost volatility. Technological risks include infrastructure breakdown and information security breaches. Workforce risks are capacity losses or disruption. Also key staff loss or defections are workforce risks. Very considerable risks are asset risks like counterparty credit loss, fraud or theft.

Typical marketing risks are security and political risks, end-market and customer risks, competitive risks, regulatory or legal risks or financial or economic risks. Security and political risks include market-disruption events and geopolitical volatility. End-market or customer risks are brand or reputation erosion and customer consolidation.

In markets competitive risks are always present. Disruptive technology and new entrants to the market are typical competitive risks. The government can create regulatory or legal risks like new legislation and litigation. Also official corruption can be categorized in this risk category. Financial market volatility and economic recession are typical financial or economic risks.

If better risk intelligence is wanted, just listing big risks is not enough. Only our imagination limits the conjectures, models, assumptions and guesses we advance to explain a risk.

The formulation of possible solutions is needed. It is necessary to invest in risk management systems and associated competences. Experienced staff to analyze and handle different risks is needed.

A lot of money and capital can be saved to better aims if the Mekong river countries manage their risks in a better way. Risk intelligence is about making choices bearing risks that our natural run of experience can really penetrate.

All this is easier said than done, but it is worth of trying.

Solar Home Systems in Laos

2010-05-26T05:39:00.000-07:00

Solar energy is part of the Lao government’s and the World Bank’s off-grid electrification scheme. In total 15.000 households in 380 villages around Laos get their electricity from solar home systems (SHS). The panel users pay monthly fee that depends on the size of the solar panel and pay-back time. The usual monthly fee is 30.000 kip (about 3 USD) for 10 years. After the payment scheme is completed the user owns the panel.

DREAM research project team from Finland Futures Research Centre conducted interviews in six villages in two provinces which have been electrified by solar home systems. In order to get variation in the collected data, half of the visited villages were in very remote areas, whereas the other half situated close to the roads. There was also variation in terms of how long SHS had been used. In some villages the panels had been installed very recently, and in others they had been already more than seven years in operation. In the villages both users of SHS and those who did not use solar energy were interviewed to find out what positive and negative – expected and unexpected - impacts SHS had on users’ lives, and whether or not the program had any impact on those villagers who did not have a solar panel.

In the visited remote areas, the panels had been very recently installed. The villagers had poor access to services and markets, and mostly people lived in a subsistence economy. The users said they were happy with the quality of light, smokeless house and the possibility to work and study during the evening. The panels were working fine, but there were problems related to finance, maintenance and received information. The installation of SHS did not have significant positive impacts on income generation, because electricity was not used for income generation activities. Some SHS users had difficulties to pay the monthly fee because they lived in subsistence economy with little cash income. They often had to sell a chicken or a pig to pay the SHS monthly fee. As a result, even though the SHS made the life easier, it did not ameliorate livelihood. As the family wealth depends on the livestock, selling animals to pay the monthly fee is not sustainable in the long run. Unless they can develop other cash sources, paradoxically the electrification can lead to deterioration of their livelihood.

Another problem in remote villages was that many users had the impression that the battery change and other maintenance costs would be covered by the monthly fee, at least as long as they are in the paying scheme. This is not the case, and as the batteries can be very expensive, (700.000-800.000 kip, about 70-80 USD) many low income families will probably have problems in finding money for the new battery every two to five years.

In the so called easy access villages, i.e. villages which have some kind of road connection and are relatively close to markets and services, the situation was different. The households had more cash income and therefore usually less problems to pay the monthly fee. In some villages the light was used for making handicrafts in the evenings. The handicrafts were sold in the market nearby.

The challenge in the easy access villages related to the quality of the panels, not so much to the payment scheme as in the very remote areas. In one village the panels were no longer working properly after seven years’ use. The users could get only about an hour of light per day, despite of the new battery. They still had to pay the monthly fee and were worried that in three years time, when the payment scheme would end, the panels would be completely useless. The promoters of SHS had said that the panels would work for 50 years, but now it seemed that they wouldn’t last even for ten years when the payment would be completed. Villagers said that they had believed the promoters as they were officials and should know about these things. The villagers also told that they did not have a chance even to read the contract before signing it.

Besides the economic and quality difficulties that seem to relate to the SHS scheme, another challenge is that very often SHS are first installed to areas were the electricity grid will likely come within few years. For Provincial Energy Service Companies (PESCOs) that are making the panel installations, it is less profitable to install them in the very remote areas. It takes more time and money to install and collect the monthly fee from the very remote areas than in the areas with good road connections. Therefore, the main goal of the whole off-grid program, i.e. to provide electricity to areas which are not likely to get grid connection for the next 5-10 years, is not achieved.

According to the preliminary results of the DREAM project’s fieldwork, most solar panel users felt that the solar energy had made their life more comfortable. The energy was used mainly for lighting, but also for television and stereos. The challenges related to payments, quality of the panels and information flow. In the poorer areas, where people were living in subsistence economies with very little cash income, the users felt that the monthly fee was expensive and the payment scheme long. Especially battery replacement is expensive. In some cases the panels will not last even for the whole payment scheme, even though they have been said to last for as long as 50 years.

In order to improve the SHS program, it would be necessary to guarantee the quality of the solar panels and to make sure the information provided about the maintenance and the replacement of the batteries is accurate. Furthermore, the installation should start from the remote areas where the electricity grid is not likely to come, at least not for a long time. At the moment, the panels easily spread to areas where installation and fee collection is easy and economically feasible.

Impact of Micro Hydropower Based (MHP) electrification on rural livelihoods: Case study Nam Mong in Luang Prabang Province, Lao PDR. M.Sc Thesis

2010-05-07T03:42:00.000-07:00

Fieldwork carried out for DREAM-project is now available through mekong.fi pages under publications 2009

Impact of Micro Hydropower Based (MHP) electrification on rural livelihoods: Case study Nam Mong in Luang Prabang Province, Lao PDR. M.Sc Thesis now available at mekong.fi -pages

https://jyx.jyu.fi/dspace/bitstream/handle/123456789/22636/URN_NBN_fi_jyu-200912144518.pdf?sequence=1

Our blog has moved to a new address

2010-04-28T06:43:00.001-07:00

This blog is now located at http://ffrc-mekong.blogspot.com/. The previous url was mekong.fi/blog.

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The third FREPLA2020 Workshop held in Thakhek on the 10th and 11th of March

2010-03-18T06:08:00.000-07:00

The third Workshop of the FREPLA2020 Project organised by the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) and University of Turku, Finland Future Resource Centre (FFRC) was held in Thakhek in Nakai district on the 10th and 11th of March. The workshop was attended altogether by 30 participants from the different GOL ministries and departments. The two day workshop focused on the concrete planning issues and challenges of different economic sectors in Lao PDR. Several presentations were held on economic and energy related development scenarios on different levels and regions (national, Mekong Region and China) by using scenario development models, like LEAP, LaoLinda and IFs. Senior Technical Advisor of the UNDP Poverty Environment Initiative Ms. Grace Wong gave also an interesting presentation on mainstreaming poverty environment and MDGs in Lao PDR.

The FFRC team (Research Director Jari Kaivo-oja, Prof. Jyrki Luukkanen and Researcher Sari Jusi) organized tutored scenario development in small groups, where the participants discussed on drivers and uncertainties related to economic development of different sectors and built different scenario developments. Policy implications of scenarios were widely discussed by using the TEPSELV analysis among the participants. In TEPSEL analysis the participants discussed about the different changes (technological, economic, policy, social, environmental, legal and value) needed for different scenario developments.

The workshop turned out to be again a very successful arena for information exchange and creating of different economic and energy related development paths and scenarios composed by different GOL ministries and organisations. In the workshop the participants discussed and revealed challenges, potential risks and problems the country may face and need to take into account developing its’ economy and energy sector in the future.

Biogas fieldvisit in Nongphouvieng

2009-11-12T21:28:00.000-08:00

Nongphouvieng village in Vientiane province is famous for its pigs. It is an ideal site for biogas projects, as the pig dung could be used for biogas production. Twenty per cent of the households in Nongphouvieng has domestic biogas digesters installed either by Chinese pilot project implemented in 2005, or by Netherlands development organisation SNV in 2007.
Finland Futures Research Centre's DREAM project team visited the village in November 2009. Domestic biogas is one of the case studies. In Nongphouvieng we discussed both with the households that have a biogas digester, and those who don’t, as well as with the village head, vice-head, and one of the masons.

Nongphouvieng village is connected to national electricity grid, and thus biogas is mainly used only for cooking. and the slurry as organic fertilizer. The interviewees thought the biogas projects have been successful, mainly because the biogas has reduced the use of charcoal and fuel wood by 50-80 %, which saves both money and time. Charcoal is still used for grilling but otherwise cooking is done with biogas. The gas is considered more convenient cooking fuel than charcoal or wood because it is quicker and cleaner. Interviewees also mentioned that the smell from the pig dung, as well as flies, had reduced in the village.

Before biogas programme the pigs ate mainly rice husk but now they are fed with industrially made food that is imported from Thailand. Probably due to hormones in the food, pigs grow faster.

The respondents told that they had first had doubts about the biogas. They wondered how pig dung could be used for cooking, whether the food would smell, and could the house be blown up if gas was not used. They said that it took about a month to get used to biogas, but now they were very satisfied about it.

When asked what could be improved in biogas projects, some biogas users replied that the stoves had already broken, and some that spare parts are not available. Those who did not have a biogas digester said either that they would like to get one if they were available and they could afford it. There were also those who were not interested in getting a biogas digester.

In brief, the overall impression was that the biogas users were satisfied with the gas. However, the poorest households cannot take part of the biogas projects because they cannot afford the digester, even though it is subsidised. The poor households usually don’t have enough animals for the biogas production, but in some cases they could get dung elsewhere. The interviewed households who didn’t have a biogas digester said that also they had benefitted from the programme, because of the reduced smell and dung in the village area.

The main part of the biogas fieldwork in Laos will be done in in Savannakhet province in January-February 2010.

Nam Mong revisited

2009-11-09T20:03:00.000-08:00

The master´s thesis "Impact of micro hydropower (MHP) based rural electrification on rural livelihoods: Case study Nam Mong in Luang Prabang province, Lao PDR" is completed. Many changes having direct effects to villagers´lives were identified after electrification . The obtained changes seen in the villages were grouped according to sustainable livelihoods approach (SLA) to asset, activity and access changes. The full version of the study will be available shortly on mekong.fi webpages. The gathered material was provided back to the head villager of Pak Mong/Phonhome Mr. Khamkong Sengmong during a visit in early November and also it was briefly discussed whether the grid connection to national grid had brought any concerns or advantages so far. It was also agreed that further visit to the villages will take place after a year or two in order to gather some comparative views on Nam Mong micro hydropower and grid based electrification.

Vientiane Times refer to upcoming Master´s Programmes in Engineering

2009-10-26T01:15:00.000-07:00

In its interview with the National University of Laos (NUOL) Engineering Faculty Dean Prof. Dr Boualinh Soysouvanh, Vientiane Times reports on the plans of having new master programmes in the near future offered at the university. There are currently 14 undergraduate programmes offered on bachelor and higher diploma programmes in civil, mechanical, electrical, electronic, transportation and water resource engineering. One of the planned master programmes is the energy management which has been formulated in collaboration with Finland Futures Research Centre.

First week of ICI trainings in Cambodia and Laos

2009-10-26T00:51:00.000-07:00

The ICI capacity building trainings are currently carried out at the Institute of Technology of Cambodia (ITC) and at the National University of Laos (NUOL). The trainings are primarily directed at the teaching staff and are carried out in two phases. The first week of training was already held at ITC during the 12th and the 15th of October, and is currently going on at NUOL (19th-22nd October 2009). The second phase training will start in Vientiane on the 16th of November and in Phnom Penh on the 1st of December and will end on the 4th of December.

Topics that were covered include climate change, renewable energy and biomass utilization and management, modeling and economics of energy projects and project management. During the second week the objective is to get acquainted with UNFCCC, climate policy options, climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies for developing countries. The trainings include also field trips to a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) site and to other renewable energy project sites both in Laos and Cambodia and include workshops where lessons learned and feedback will be collected. Furthermore teachings of energy planning models and project management will continue during the second week.

Getting first results from the Survey project

2009-09-03T04:02:00.000-07:00

The overall objective of our Survey project is to gather basic information of the rural natural resources base and sustainability of livelihoods in Cambodia and Laos. The project has reached a stage where first results are available. Ten Focus Group Discussions were organized around Cambodia, eight in rural villages and two in the capital Phnom Penh. The aim of the discussions was to hear people tell about changes that have taken place in their daily environment and livelihoods, and how they are dealing with possible negative impacts. The urban groups discussed about migration of some family members as a coping strategy for many rural families. They also discussed about differences between village and city life.
The overall picture that emerges from the discussions is quite gloomy. According to the respondents, life in the rural villages of Cambodia has become harder due to fast depletion of local natural resources and global economic recession. Forest degradation, unpredictable weathers and dramatically diminishing fish catches are causing pressure to the already poor households, living from hand to mouth. All respondents in the rural villages stated that acquiring firewood for cooking is becoming more and more difficult because forests around their village are getting smaller or are cleared completely for farming land. Weather conditions have become more unpredictable, and droughts as well as rain in the wrong time are making rice cultivation more difficult and increasing the risk of crop failure.
The global food crisis has been clearly seen in Cambodia in the price of rice, which has gone up by approximately 100% in one year. As rice is the most important staple food for Cambodians, decreasing rice production and rising rice prices are a serious concern for the food security situation in the country. In many of the Focus Group Discussion villages families are experiencing hunger during a month of two before rice harvesting. Also the prices of agricultural inputs, such as gasoline, fertilizers and pesticides have gone up significantly, decreasing the profit that farmers get from their products when they sell it at the market.
People have many kinds of coping strategies to overcome difficult times. All the respondents tell they have had to borrow money to cover unexpected costs caused for example by an illness or accident in the family. Families borrow rice during “hungry months” and some have to resort to selling their family assets, such as farming land, animals or even the house, leading to even deeper vicious circle of poverty.
One of the much used coping strategies is to send one family member to work in a city to earn income and support the family living in the village. Migration is often seasonal and people come back to their village to help in their family with farming work during agricultural peak seasons. In some of the villages most young women have moved to work in the garment factories of Phnom Penh. For those women moving to the city has brought a positive change. Although work in the factories is hard and hours long, the women are happy to be able to make their own money, support their family and live a more independent life. However, work in the urban factories is very sensitive to changes in the global economic situation. During the past year many garment factories have closed their doors and the women have returned to their villages.
The Survey project is now at its second phase, where field work teams of our local partner, Indochina Research Ltd., are going around Cambodia and interviewing 1250 households about livelihoods, food security, energy use and coping strategies. The results from the whole data can be expected in the end of the year.

Jenny Turunen

First expert workshop for FREPLA 2020 held in Vientiane, Lao PDR

2009-06-04T02:55:00.000-07:00

The First Expert Workshop of Project “Future Resource Economy and Policies in Laos till the year 2020 (FREPLA 2020)” was held on 3rd of June 2009, Vientiane, Lao PDR with the opening speech by Mr. Hatsady Sisoulath, the Deputy Director General from Ministry of Energy and Mines and getting together 32 people from different ministries of Government of Lao PDR and from different organizations for expert discussions. The work shop was the first of a series of 5 workshops held in the future.
The one day event organized by the Department of Electricity (Ministry of Energy and Mines) and Turku School of Economics took place in Lao Plaza hotel kicking off with morning expert presentations and discussions followed by four afternoon working group discussions on Rural Electrification, Potential and Utilization of Renewable Energy in Lao PDR, Cooking Energy: Can We Give Up from Using Wood? and Hydro Power and Water Resources. The working groups presented their findings in the late afternoon for all the participants and the workshop was summarized in concluding marks by FFRC staff.
The workshop was very successful in terms of attendance as well as the discussions held and information shared. It provided also a venue to have different ministries to cooperate and share views and creating future forum for cooperation and information sharing within different ministries.

DREAM-project fieldworks kick off

2009-05-12T18:37:00.000-07:00

The first set of fieldworks for DREAM "Why Renewable Energy Projects Fail or Succeed?"- Project has been started and completed in the Nam Bak district. The Nam Mong demonstration project on micro hydropower implemented in cooperation with New Energy Foundation (NEF) of Japan and the Lao Government (former Ministry of Industry and Handicrafts (MIH)) has been providing electricity for seven villages and now will be connected to the national grid. It has been referred by many as one of the most successful donor funded projects in terms of micro hydropower based rural electrification efforts. Altogether 7 village leader interviews and 21 villager interviews were completed together with one focus group discussion on the impact of electricity to rural livelihoods. Meetings with Provincial office of Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) and Eletricité du Laos (EDL) together with visits to all of the impacted villages namely Nam Mong, Vang Hinh, Pak Mong, Vang Kham, Phonhome, Houay Ang and Mok Vek took place during late April and first weeks of May.

During the interviews with various people of these villages many good stories and laughs were shared and genuine sense of unity inside the communities was observed throughout the visits. Equally importantly many of the villagers expressed their views and opinions on their lives, livelihoods and electricity. The children were happy and curious as they are supposed to be, running around and playing between the bamboo houses, swimming in the Nam Mong river, while mothers were washing clothes. Most of the people were already anxiously waiting for the rains to arrive, preparing and finishing the last dry season activities under the strong sun, some dried tobacco, many were preparing rice for storage, some were fishing while others were sawing and preparing wood for house building.
A mere thank you is not simply enough to express the gratitude for having us in the villages and sharing your time with us but at this point a “khob chai lai” or as the Khamu´s say “Khoprenjee Maak Maak”( forgive me the spelling)is needed. The information of the study will be later on also disseminated on the web pages for everyone to see so be alerted.

Meetings, meetings...

2009-05-05T01:32:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from the meetings with our partners and collaborators in Phnom Penh.

Tough times for tuk-tuk drivers

2009-04-17T01:25:00.000-07:00

Global financial crisis affects Cambodia. Tuk-tuk drivers feel the impact of the crises due to the decrease of tourism. In Phnom Penh the downturn in business has come as a shock to tuk-tuk drivers whose livelihood partly depends on tourists. Tuk-tuk drivers in Phnom Penh used to get between 7-10 dollars a day before the decline but now they earn 1.5 to 5 dollars a day.

According to the Ministry of Tourism, the number of visitors to the country has grown from 1 million in 2004 to 2 million in 2007, but in the second half of 2008 the number of visitors stated

decline and the trend is expected to continue till the end of next year. Cambodia tries to defend itself against the current dip in visitors from Europe and the US by advertising heavily in Asia. The idea is to appeal to the people who live in neighboring countries. Now more than half of the tourists are from Asia. (Cambodia Daily, March 26, 2009)

Golf course under construction, leave your homes please!

2009-03-15T03:17:00.000-07:00

Last time I was in Vientiane, Laos, was about a year ago. Not much has changed since then, few new coffee shops have opened, some others have closed. The city still has the charming slow-life atmosphere and friendliness that you usually come across only in provincial towns - if you are lucky.

Some changes are expected to happen by the end of the year when Laos will host 25th Southeast Asian Games in December 2009. The SEA Games have a relatively long history, as the first Games were held already in 1959. This year Laos will be the host for the first time, and Vientiane will be main area for the games. The hosting of the Games is an important showcase for Laos, and all forces have been united for the preparations.

Despite of all the efforts, Laos has to reduce the number of sports contested in the Games. The news that Laos has dropped a considerable number of sports and run the risk of not being able to hold the event due to financial constraints, led other countries to come for assistance. It is estimated a total US$85 million worth of aid has been handed by various Asian nations.

Some of this funding goes to construction of a new golf course near Vientiane. Construction should be ready by the end of May. However, according to the article published in Vientiane Times on 13th March, 2009, the Lao Golf Federation is having difficulty clearing land around the golf course because some people have not yet left their homes to make way for construction. The article did not tell where they are supposed to move.

The three nine-hole courses will be extended by additional 60 hectares after the ending of the Games, to make it a total of 210 hectares and 45 holes.

FFRC-team in Laos

2009-03-12T05:22:00.000-07:00

Prof Khamphone (NUOL) ja Mr. Khamso (MEM) are having talks with FFRC-team Venla Kinnunen, Jyrki Luukkanen ja Jari Kaivo-oja about FREPLA project.

Welcome to our Blog!

2009-02-25T12:42:00.000-08:00

Finland Futures Research Centre is conducting energy and climate research and designing and implementing capacity-building in the Mekong region in Southeast Asia. The Mekong region gets its name from the Mekong River which vends its way through Yunnan province in China, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Lao PDR and Cambodia.

The Mekong region has high biological and cultural diversity, and the areas vary in terms of economic development and political systems. What is common to the Mekong countries is that the energy demand is rapidly increasing due for example to industrialisation, urbanisation and rural electrification programmes.

Energy choices made in the developing countries today have long-ranging consequences, both in terms of investment and impact on the global climate. Energy is in numerous ways linked to the efforts in reducing poverty, improving human welfare and raising living standards but the energy solutions have long term impacts on environment, economy and society. The urgent question, therefore, is what type of energy supply and transmission infrastructure should be promoted. Therefore, securing access to safe, clean and sustainable energy is one of the greatest challenges of the near future.

The aim of Finland Futures Research Centre is to promote the transition to sustainable energy in the Mekong region through collaboration and networking, research and capacity-building. Sustainable energy refers to renewable energy that is also socially and economically viable in the long run.