A rural electrification project launched in Fiji last month will take electricity to almost 200 households from renewable energy sources, with project lead, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) highlighting the increasing number of countries around the region moving towards renewable energy sources.
“Many of them are targeting 100% renewables for their [electricity] generation mix, alongside increased access to electricity,” said ADB Project Officer, Takeshi Shiihara.
“While Pacific Island countries face a similar set of energy challenges, each country has a unique operating context, and requires varying levels of support to achieve their targets,” said Shiihara.
“Some countries have highly dispersed populations and continue to face critical challenges in providing electricity to outer islanders or rural populations. Other countries have more concentrated populations but experience high generation costs linked to diesel dependence and associated import costs.
“Yet, use of renewables can be a key tool to address energy issues from both groups, which is also supported by ADB’s involvement in the Pacific energy sector for many years,” he added.
Transitioning to renewables will also reduce the huge costs of fuel imports for the Pacific – an estimated US$6 billion annually, or around 5-15% of a nation’s GDP, which Shiihara says is “an enormous economic burden.”
“As [recent data by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific] has further assessed that the share of electricity generation against the annual cost of fuel imports to the region is approximately 37%, the region could potentially save fuel imports or traditional energy sources for as much as US$2.2 billion, should it manage to achieve a successful transition to 100% renewables in the future,” said Shiihara.
ADB launched the Fiji Rural Electrification Support Project in partnership with the Fijian government and the Japan Fund for Prosperous and Resilient Asia and the Pacific, with FJ$6.8 million (US$3.4 million) in grant financing.
Ninety six percent of Fiji’s population has access to electricity. “And 50% of the country’s energy supply is mostly powered by hydro energy,” said Deepak Shanil Chand, Fiji’s Assistant Director of Energy.
The project will expand and upgrade a mini-hydropower facility in Buca, a village on the second largest island of Vanua Levu, and install a solar photovoltaic-based mini-grid together with a battery energy storage system in Tiliva, Kadavu, an island that’s a six-hour boat ride south of the capital Suva.
Aaron Batten is Regional Director of ADB’s Pacific Sub-Regional Office, which oversees ADB-supported energy projects in the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Niue, Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu.
“The project will also explore the potential for more technical solutions such as energy forecasting systems and smart meters that can be used to run the systems more efficiently and sustainably,” he told Islands Business.
“The villagers of Buca and Tiliva will be allowed to use the power generation facilities and also assume the operation and management responsibilities of the facilities under the Department of Environment,” added Shiri Gounder, Fiji’s Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Finance, Strategic Planning, and National Development and Statistics.
“Solar and hydro have been the largest sources of renewable energy in the Pacific, but new technologies are emerging. Wind energy, geothermal energy, and now, wave technology is being explored,” said Batten.
“The majority of our work has been supporting Pacific Island governments to upgrade their energy grids and transmission system, because a key constraint on putting more renewables into the grid has been the energy transmission system, so there’s been a large focus on that,” he said.
ADB’s Renewable Energy Project in Tonga is expected to complete delivery of all outputs by the end of 2024, says Shiihara. Outputs include a large battery energy storage system to ensure that the intermittent electricity generated from solar photovoltaic and wind power can be stored and used overnight; electricity generation from the most feasible renewable resources in Tonga, including in the outer islands; and grid technologies and management upgrade to adapt to new electricity sources in the outer islands.
“While ADB does not have any rural electrification projects in the pipeline for Tonga, distribution network upgrade projects are in the pipeline,” Shiihara told Islands Business.
He said the US$44.6 million project, approved in March 2019 and funded by ADB, the Green Climate Fund and the Australian government, aims to reduce Tonga’s dependence on imported fossil fuel for power generation.
Tonga imports diesel for over 75% of its electricity needs.
“The country is highly vulnerable to fluctuations in international fuel prices, and the government is planning to increase the use of renewable energy in order to lower diesel imports, increase energy security, and reduce the cost of electricity,” the Asian Development Bank said in a statement.
According to Shiihara, ADB’s Outer Island Renewable Energy Project in Tonga, which supplies solar power to households, schools, and other public facilities on the islands of ‘Eua, Ha’apai, and Vava’u, closed on December 31, 2023.
The project’s solar generating facilities are expected to reduce diesel imports by an estimated 480,000 litres a year.
The ADB is also contributing towards the Tuvalu government’s target of achieving 100% renewable energy by 2025 with a project that will transform Funafuti and selected outer island power systems by replacing diesel power with solar power. The project is expected to displace 6.7 million liters of diesel fuel and avoid 17,800 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in greenhouse gas emissions over its lifetime.
