Vision 2050

Challenges and Recommendations
investment for the next half century, regardless of its use over time.
It is useful to keep in mind that, in some countries like Australia,
there is already an economic case in some locations to disconnect
from the grid and use solar plus storage.
The electricity networks that power our world are one of the great
engineering feats of the 20th century. The work we need to do
to modernize them or to replace them over the coming decades
will be one of the great feats of the 21st. In Laos, the following
models have been developed in order to accelerate off-grid rural
electrification (UNESCAP, 2014):
» ESCO / Fee for Service Mechanism: Between 1999 and 2009,
the Off-Grid Promotion Support Office (OGS) in the Department
of Electricity of MEM was established to support the delivery and
installation of Solar Home Systems (SHS) in villages that wouldn’t
be electrified before the next 10 years.
» Provincial Energy Service Companies: (PESCOs) were designated
to implement this program, for installation and maintenance.
Villagers would acquire the SHS’s under a leasing mechanism
over a period of 5 to 10 years, with some part of the SHS paid by
some government subsidies. 14,000 SHS were installed during this
period.
» Public-Private Sector Mechanism (Sunlabob Renewable Energy
Ltd): The Solar Lantern Rental System (SLRS) is an innovative
public private-partnership, wherein Sunlabob has partnered with
the local village entrepreneurs and village energy committees to
deliver lighting services to the community. A village entrepreneur
operates a large solar charging station rented from Sunlabob that
is used to charge portable lamps which are financed from a public
fund and circulates them within the households of the villages.
The households only pay a refundable deposit and a charging-fee,
which makes it affordable to them.
» MEM Micro-hydro Public Private Partnership:
© WWF INTERNATIONAL
The Ministry of Energy and Mines has considered this model on
pilot basis for implementing four micro-hydropower plants in the
province of Huaphan. This will act as a pilot project to test the
financing mechanisms and the possibility of scale-up. The project
is based on a lease purchase agreement, where:
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