Page 13 - AsiaElec Week 11 2021

AsiaElec NEWS IN BRIEF AsiaElec

Star of the South Wind Farm has selected a greatly enhance its independence from foreign GRID
transmission route for Australia’s first offshore energy sources while ensuring that the energy
wind farm following a 12-month assessment. transition is stamped “Made in China”, Wood Laos grants 25-Year power
The transmission route would come Mackenzie’s analysts Huang Miaoru and Zhou
to shore around Reeves Beach and travel Yanting said in a report. grid concession to Chinese-
underground through Darriman, Giffard West “China’s dependence on hydrocarbons
and Hiamdale, connecting into the grid in the proves a hard habit to break, but the pursuit of majority firm
Latrobe Valley. carbon neutrality makes it possible,” they said.
The developer assessed three different Oil demand in the world’s largest importer Th Laos government and a majority Chinese-
routes and considered feedback from could fall by half by 2040 compared with its owned company signed a 25-year concession
landholders, local communities and base case, and nearly eliminate the country’s agreement that allows the company to build
government, as well as site investigations and need for the fossil fuel by 2050, they said, and manage a large part of the country’s
technical studies which were undertaken in enhancing its energy security. power grid.
2020. Without carbon-reduction goals, China’s According to a report by Radio Free Asia’s
Star of the South is now continuing oil-import dependency would exceed 80% Lao service, the company, Electricite du Laos
conversations and is looking to enter by 2030, while half of its natural gas supply Transmission Company Ltd. (EDLT), will
voluntary agreements with landholders would be imported, Woodmac said. invest $2bn in the Lao power grid and will
whose property may be suitable to host the China’s oil demand will peak at 17mn manage large parts of it for a period of 25
transmission infrastructure. barrels per day in early 2030s and decline to years, after which they will be ceded to the
The project is committed to using 16mn bpd in 2040 and 14mn bpd in 2050, Lao government.
underground cables, unless it is not according to Woodmac’s base case. EDLT was created last September as a joint
technically feasible or where overhead lines The world’s top energy consumer and venture between the state power company
would have a lower impact. second-largest economy could see a 75% Electricite du Laos (EDL) and the China
Located off the south coast of Victoria, increase in electricity demand, with growth Southern Power Grid Company, in which
Star of the South could comprise up to 250 primarily in solar, wind and storage, while China Southern held a majority of shares.
turbines with a combined capacity of up to 2 nuclear power will also have a role to play. The company was formed after the Lao
GW. China could add 6,870 gigawatt (GW) of government found itself swamped by rising
The wind farm is a joint development by electricity demand from Woodmac’s base case debt levels amid the economic downturn of
Australia’s Offshore Energy and Copenhagen scenario if it was to become carbon neutral by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Infrastructure Partners (CIP). 2060, they said. While Laos has been largely untouched
As China expands renewable power by the coronavirus – the country has so far
generation, the leading supplier of solar recorded just 48 cases and no deaths from
panels, wind turbines and batteries will also the disease – the pandemic has wiped out the
ENERGY SECURITY consolidate its position in the renewable country’s tourism industry and choked off the
energy sector. flow of remittances from abroad, putting the
China’s climate pledge to share of the clean power supply chain could nation on the brink of sovereign default.
However, its ambitions of grasping a bigger
According to reports from the time,
create tectonic shift be impeded by access to five metals - copper, the government’s reserves had dwindled
aluminium, nickel, cobalt and lithium.
to $864mn as of June last year, an amount
China’s goal to become carbon neutral in “China’s dependence on foreign miners insufficient to meet debt obligations totaling
2060 will require $6.4 trillion of investment for its copper supply is a major concern,” more than $1bn annually until the end of
in new power generating capacity, leading Woodmac’s Zhou said, adding that this has 2024. According to a separate report, in
to a tectonic shift in manufacturing and fuelled the country’s determination to seek addition to Laos’s own sovereign debt of
commodity imports while boosting its energy greater control of other raw materials. $12.6bn (equivalent to around 65 percent
security, consultancy Wood Mackenzie said. China controls just 16% of its copper of gross domestic product), EDL holds an
China has been grappling with rising oil supply needs, leaving it short of a net 7.5mn additional estimated $8bn of debt.
and gas import dependency while facing tonnes a year at current demand levels, An official of the Lao Ministry of Energy
increasing geo-political tensions that threaten according to Woodmac. and Mines told Radio Free Asia that EDLT
its energy security, Reuters reported. would take control of only the high-voltage
Its plans to shift to renewable energy would power line network while the Lao utility

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