Mitsubishi Corporation has reached agreement to invest in Impact Energy Asia Development (IEAD), the developer of a 600MW onshore wind farm project in Laos. By installing a dedicated power transmission line to Vietnam, power from the wind farm will be sold to state-owned Vietnam Electricity under a 25-year power purchase agreement. The new trasmission line will run across the border to Quang Nam Province in central Vietnam.

Mitsubishi will invest through an intermediate holding company, together with a group company of Bangkok-based Impact Electrons Siam. The initiative is being executed through Diamond Generating Asia (DGA), Mitsubishi's wholly owned subsidiary in Hong Kong.

The onshore wind farm will be located in Sekong and Attapeu provinces in southern Laos. It will be the first wind farm in Laos and the largest in Southeast Asia.

Vietnam, meanwhile, needs additional sources of electricity supply to support its economic growth,especially in the dry season, when the operating rate of one of the country's main power sources, hydro power, is limited. Thus, the wind farm will help stabilize the country's power system while making its energy mix greener.

The onshore wind farm is being developed as part of a memorandum of understanding on power interchange signed between the Vietnamese and Lao governments in October 2016.

If electricity exports from this project are realized, it will most likely be the first cross-border electricity interchange from wind power generation in Southeast Asia.