Electricity exports have formed a key part of the development strategy of landlocked Laos. - Reuters
BEIJING: Laos has signed a US$1.45 billion (S$1.94 billion) clean energy deal with a Chinese power plant equipment manufacturer as the South-East Asian country furthers its push into clean power generation and transmission.
China Western Power Industrial, along with a Singapore-based construction company, signed the agreement with Xekong Thermal Power Plant in Laos to design, supply, and build a 1,800-megawatt clean energy power project in southern Laos, according to a stock exchange filing by the Sichuan-based company on Monday (March 24).
Shares of the Shenzhen-listed firm jumped 9.9 per cent after the filing. So far in 2025, the stock has surged 46.3 per cent.
The project is expected to be completed by the beginning of 2030, with initial designs to be finished by the end of this year.
The filing did not provide details on the energy source of the project.
On the day, the Chinese company also signed a power transmission deal, valued at US$228.8 million, with the same Laotian company.
In 2022, China Western Power signed a supply and service deal worth US$409 million with another power company in Laos.
In 2024, a Chinese state-owned power company signed an agreement with Laos to expand a wind and solar energy base in the north of the country.
Laos, a mountainous country, has produced about 80 per cent of its electricity from hydropower over the last decade but has struggled to scale up its solar and wind power.
Electricity exports, which also go to neighbouring Thailand and Vietnam, have formed a key part of the development strategy of landlocked Laos, which has been dubbed the battery of South-East Asia. - Reuters
