News 2006 - Sunlabob

Sunlabob signs the first carbon credit deal in Laos

Monday, 30 October 2006

Sunlabob signed the first voluntary carbon deal in Laos with TFS, a UK company. Sunlabob will sell the carbon credits created from the clean solar power systems that avoid the pollution from diesel generators.
Carbon credits are a hot commodity on the international market. The deal was arranged by Carbon Bridge, a SEAsian based carbon advisory company - TFS purchased 5,000 carbon credits from Sunlabob that will be created between 2002-2012. Normally small scale solar projects are too small to participate in the carbon market, however this unique deal bundles all emission reductions over 10 years.

Sunlabob shortlisted for the Dubai Award

Friday, 20 October 2006
Sunlabob is among the 48 entries shortlisted from 609 submissions for the "Dubai International Award for Best Practices to Improve the Living Environment". This award is operated also through UN-HABITAT. Our entry has been "Electrification of Remote Villages in Lao PDR". We are proud to have been shortlisted.

Planting Jatropha

Sunday, 15 October 2006

We have launched extensive campaigns for planting Jatropha. Farmers are keen to take up this crop for growing on land that is not suitable for agricultural crops.

Vote for Sunlabob in the BBC Worldchallenge

Tuesday, 10 October 2006

From several hundred entries Sunlabob has been chosen as one of 12 finalists in the Worldchallenge run by the BBC, Newsweek and Shell. This is a global competition seeking to highlight and reward outstanding examples of community enterprise and innovation. The general public can now decide on the winner by voting online.
Here you can see more about the competition as well as vote!! Our project is called "SUNNY SIDE UP". Please go here and vote for Sunlabob!
A 20 minute video is broadcast on Saturday 18th November at 09:30 and 16:30 GMT. This is a great honor for Sunlabob and a good opportunity to support innovation here in Laos!!!

High lift solar pumps installed

Monday, 25 September 2006

Sunlabob has installed the first high-lift pumps operated with solar power. This project is funded by UNICEF. The pumps provide drinking water to villages over very large heights. We had to meet a high technical challenge: Pump 190m up and across to the village more than a kilometer. High-tech equipment with solar tracking can now be shown to be beneficial for Lao villagers. We are proud to be able to provide this service and ensure longterm maintenance.

Public works begin in Nam Kha pilot village grid

Friday, 15 September 2006

The villagers in Nam Kha village have begun to work on their public assets for the village grid. Villagers will own the fixed assets (channels, housings, the grid, etc) and Sunlabob will own the movable assets (turbine, solar generators, etc). This results in mutual leverage of public and private investments, which ultimately allow sustained operations. Sunlabob has already bought the equipment that will be installed in Nam Kha.

Annual company vacation

Sunday, 10 September 2006

The annual company vacation of the Sunlabob team took place in August. We decided to travel to the south of Laos this year. There are now 32 staff members joining Sunlabob.

Jatropha becomes important

Tuesday, 05 September 2006

Sunlabob is experiencing a strong interest of agencies wanting to explore the potential of Jatropha. In order to achieve an own understanding of the situation, Sunlabob took up contact with the PPM in Magdeburg in Germany, an institute that has experience of many years of working on the refinement of plant oils for industrial purposes. We also took up contact with the VWP, a cooperation of crafts enterprises researching the application of plant oils in agriculture and technology. For growing Jatropha Bagani was contacted, which has a good website about the plant.
Close partnerships have been decided. What has become clear is that inspite of all the hype about Jatropha, a lot of technical and operational R&D still needs to be done in order to clarify various solutions and grasp the full potential.

The LIRE is launched

Sunday, 20 August 2006
The Lao Institute for Renewable Energy has been registered as a non-profit organization. The founding members of this institute are Sunlabob, RESDA Lao, Xao Ban Group, National University of Laos NUOL, Technology Research Institute TRI, and the Lao Association for Organic Product Promotion LAOPP. For further information: A website is under construction at http://www.lao-ire.org

LIRE - the Lao Institute for Renewable Energy

Friday, 21 July 2006

Sunlabob has secured the support of the Fraunhofer Research Institute in Germany for establishing and operating a Lao Institute for Renewable Energy. Sunlabob has also secured cooperation from various Lao partner organizations. This institute shall operate on a non-profit basis and concentrate on applied Research & Development for renewable energy in Laos, and on developing and conducting the required training programs for the Lao small and large companies that will operate such systems. At present the institutional details are being worked out. For further details see the concept paper for the LIRE.

Full Sunlabob package to be applied on Nyas island in Indonesia

Monday, 17 July 2006

The organization UID in Indonesia has contracted Sunlabob to provide the full package of equipment, services and trainings for establishing a sustained electrification effort on the island of Nyas. This island had been badly struck by the Tsunami. Sunlabob is proud to be able to export its services and know-how from Laos to Indonesia. We hope more such south-south capacitation efforts can take place in the future.

Visit by Bhutanese delegation

Friday, 07 July 2006

The farsighted policies of the Ministry and the operations in Laos regarding rural electrification are being increasingly appreciated by other countries. A delegation from the Bhutanese government has also visited Sunlabob on their official visit to Laos. The Bhutanese have asked Sunlabob to make suggestions how the success of Sunlabob could be replicated in Bhutan.

Triodos Bank to send an analyst

Friday, 30 June 2006
Triodos Bank in the Netherlands has shown an interest to invest in our operations. The Bank will send an own analyst to look at our operations and come up with a businessplan for a large investment program over several years. We are looking forward to have a good banker with us, as we are sure to be able to learn a lot on such large scale and longterm investment issues.

Sunlabob Finalist in Worldchallenge

Monday, 26 June 2006

World Challenge 2006, by BBC World and Newsweek, in association with Shell, aims to find individuals or groups from around the world who have shown enterprise and innovation at a grass roots level. This year Sunlabob has been selected as one of the 12 finalists. See World Challenge 2006. This means a camerateam of BBC will be coming to make a feature of our solar home rental services. We are looking forward to it.

High lift pumps

Saturday, 20 May 2006
UNICEF has just sigend a contract with Sunlabob to build and power waterpumps with solar energy to lift drinking water 190m up and along a distance of 1200m. This is a technical challenge we are glad to take up, as it can show how reliable solar power is for such applications in remote areas.

Contribution to Human Resource Development in the country

Saturday, 29 April 2006

Technical College Pakpasak, Vientiane and Sunlabob agreed to cooperate on a practical training program for students. Sunlabob will provide the real environement in which students of Pakpasak college can gain practical experiences in the planning, installation and operation of energy systems. Sunlabob sees it as its social responsibility to contribute its practical expertise to the vocational training efforts in the country. We hope to be able to thereby assist in the development of the human resources that will doubtlessly be needed in the future.

First Sunny water event with demonstration

Thursday, 20 April 2006

The "Sunnywater" project with solar pumps and microirrigation has had its first public demonstration in NABONG village. This project is operated through a Public-Private-Partnership with DEG (see news of 18. November 2005). Xao Ban is our organizational partner for the agronomic and marketing side of the venture. 150 people visited from various agencies and organizations and could get a hands-on look at the installed equipment. Discussions were focussed on the rental options and on the income generating potential of this effort. First negotiations are now under way to install further systems beyond the 14 that have been envisaged in the PPP with DEG.

Delegation from East Timor visits Sunlabob

Tuesday, 28 March 2006

An official delegation from various government agencies of East Timor visited Sunlabob to learn more about the new Sunlabob ventures regarding rural electrification. The tested concept of “Rental Service” of solar community systems as well as the Hybrid village grids could be also an option for the electrification of East Timor's rural areas. Sunlabob is looking forward to provide further support to related agencies in East Timor.

Partnership with Fraunhofer Gesellschaft

Saturday, 04 February 2006
The Fraunhofer Gesellschaft is a major research organization in Germany. Recent negotiations have led to a partnership with Fraunhofer for exploring the economic and social impacts of our energy systems. We are planning to participate in research projects operated by Fraunhofer.

Pilot village grid surveyed

Friday, 20 January 2006

In Nam Kha in Xiengkhuang Province Sunlabob has surveyed the pilot village grid. This will be the test environment for integrating all the various technologies and procedures for operating a 220 Volt grid in a remote village. Small hydro turbines, solar generators and biofuel generator sets will all combine to feed into a village grid owned by the village. We are searching for public and private investors into this new venture. For more details click here.

Sunlabob explores Biofuel

Monday, 09 January 2006

Sunlabob has entered into an agreement with the Lao Association for Organic Products Promotion (LAOPP) for developing and testing the potential for using biofuel to operate electric generators. LAOPP has convincingly demonstrated that diesel engines can be operated with oil extracted under village conditions from the commonly growing perennial plant Jatropha curcas. The objective of the agreement is to organize the production, processing and utilization of locally produced Jatropha oil for rural electrification. This fits well with the hybrid generation concept for village grids. For more details refer to the paper on Jatropha.