Ch Karnchang, Laos sign MoU for study of dam on Mekong River
Ch Karnchang announced it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) last Friday with the Lao government to conduct a feasibility study of the construction of a US$1.7-billion (Bt59 billion) run-of-river dam on the Mekong River.
Anukool Tuntimas, executive vice president for human resources and general administration, said in a statement submitted to the Stock Exchange of Thailand that from a preliminary study, Ch Karnchang found the Sayaboury Hydroelectric Power Project would have an installed capacity of up to 1,260 megawatts.
That is about twice the capacity that
the Nam Ngum 2 Dam, also in Laos, will have. The Nam Ngum 2 Dam is being
constructed by Southeast Asia Energy (SEAN), an associate company of Ch Karnchang.
After completion of construction, the Sayaboury Dam will generate about 6,000 gigawatt hours of electricity per year for sale to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat), while the Nam Ngum 2 Dam will generate about 2,200GWh and cover a catchment area of about 280,000 square kilometres.
"It's expected that the construction cost of the said project will be about $1.7 billion to $1.8 billion, with the company the main contractor," Anukool said.
Revenues from sale of electricity to Egat are expected to be not less than $300 million a year, while the operation and maintenance costs will be about 3 per cent of revenues, he said.
The feasibility study will take not more than 30 months, and construction should commence in early 2011 and be completed and generate electricity for sale to Egat in the last quarter of 2015.
Earlier, the company had informed the stock exchange that SEAN, its associate company, signed an MoU with the Lao government to study and develop the Nam Bak I and Nam Bak II (Nam Chia) Project for a feasibility study of around 18 months.
The Nam Bak I and Nam Bak II Project will generate about 1,080 kilowatts of electricity per year, or about half the capacity of the Nam Ngum 2 Project, with a total project value of $400 million and a concession term of 30 years, including the construction period.
The project is located 15 kilometres from the Nam Ngum 2 Project. Furthermore, the Nam Bak Project will increase the energy to the Nam Ngum 2 Project by about 250kW a year by diverting water from the project to the Nam Ngum 2 Reservoir.
SEAN expects this project to enhance capacity for maximum benefit in a short period of time and start generating electricity in 2013, he said.
Great idea! f*ck the river. F*ck the millions of people who fish in it, wash in it, use it for transport, race boats in it. F*ck the naga fireballs. F*ck the beautiful raging bronze sunsets, f*ck tourism, f*ck it all because some old, rich fat, tao keh bast*ards want money to sleep with little girls and drink saki and nobody can stop them because they also happen to run the army. What a truly brilliant, intelligent idea. Three cheers for the Party, mun yeun!
problem are that Laos a new land, open to investment to be exact, any country who sees profit wants to **** the living hell out of Laos...who doesn't, 1st come 1st serve. the country's a virgin...do the investors care, hell no, they don't live there, certainly it isn't their ancestors land. Oh and Laos government...well they over thrown the King so they pocket mucho dinero (money)...so they say..."u bring the cracker, i'll have caviar waiting" it's sad...to see a countries that's in the past been torn/rape by war & now a new kind of war. i'm going to vomit thinking it.
1: There was nothing in the article that said it would be damaging to the eco-life in Laos. NOTHING.
2: Does no one see the potential Ups from this? 6,000 gigawattsan hour of energy, at first going to Thailand but what if it was going towards Laos? Can you say development? The Mekong provides so much for people, why not electricity?
3: A 30 month study. 30 months to see potential problems, etc.
4: What the **** are you people complaining about? Kings? Government? Do you seriously not see the potential in this project?
Mekong is an international river shares by Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam. The construction of dam across the Mekong will have a big impact not only to ecological systems, but also to the living of people living downstream of the river.
I agree that building dam is better than building electrical powerhouse because it generate no greenhouse gas!
