"Just, Inclusive & Equitable Energy Transition" – Are Pacific Island Countries’ Moving Towards 100 PC Renewable Energy?

The harmful effects of fossil fuels on the environment are now well-documented. There is a global push to move to renewable sources of energy and reduce the usage of fossil fuels to reduce the damage caused by harmful emissions that are being considered the primary cause of climate change. Some countries have taken very bold steps to move away from fossil fuels not only to protect the environment but also to reduce their expenditure on buying fossil fuels from other countries. The transition to locally available clean sources of energy will ultimately lead to the sustainable development of these countries.

The Pacific Island countries (PICs) have, at several forums, expressed their commitment to meeting their energy needs from renewable sources rather than fossil fuels. However, even after years of efforts and investments, more than three-quarters of the energy for commercial purposes comes from fossil fuels. There is a strong intention of many countries in the region to meet the Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7), which calls for “affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all”, by 2030.

The target can still be achieved if the leaders of these countries take a strong interest and fully support the Departments of Energy, CROP agencies and international organisations so that there is no hindrance in a quick transition to renewable sources of energy. A strong collaboration between all the organisations is essential for the effective implementation of renewable energy projects. Most of the countries in the region have well-defined Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and timely implementation of the planned or proposed projects will ensure that they meet their NDCs.

The Pacific Senior Energy Officials Meeting is a very suitable forum for the countries to share their progress as well as issues they are facing, improve collaboration, and take advice from experienced energy professionals as well as the Energy Security Working Group that was established to assess the progress and provide advice. This group should ensure that it makes a significant contribution to all the PICs' transition plans.

It was reported in the last Pacific Senior Energy Officials Meeting that 64 percent of the people in the Pacific lack access to a regular supply of energy. The levelised cost of energy (LCOE), which was quite high for some of the renewables, has now come down considerably, and the countries have more options to choose from rather than relying mainly on solar PV systems and a few wind turbines.

Several projects on solar PV systems have had partial success due to issues like poor maintenance, shortage of skilled personnel, inability to revive the system after a natural disaster, etc. Due to these reasons, many such systems generate less than half of their rated output power just after a few years of installation, although their normal life is expected to be more than 20 years. Another observation is that the cloud cover is increasing over many islands, severely impacting the capacity factor of these systems. A new option is Solar Chimney Power Plants that convert solar energy to wind energy; they have no moving parts except the turbine-generator and can store energy under the collector.

With the increasing threat to our coastlines due to the changing climate, there is a new option of combining coastal protection with wave energy harvesting. Some countries are working in this direction, and Energy and Climate researchers should propose suitable locations for such combined systems. It is encouraging to see Tonga working with a development partner for harvesting wave energy. Ocean thermal energy (OTEC) projects combined with seawater air conditioning (SWAC) are now being implemented in Marshall Islands and Kiribati and are in the pipeline for Fiji.

The Government of Tuvalu is very keen to move to this source of energy as well. With a near-constant difference between ocean surface temperature and deep seawater temperature, this will be an ideal technology for the main islands of some PICs. Being surrounded by ocean, it will not be prudent for these countries not to consider marine renewable energy as one important option. Countries make progress if they demonstrate enough confidence in their capabilities, technologies, and design solutions. ‘Site-specific Design’ is one such concept many countries are applying for high-efficiency solutions.

Several programmes and frameworks have been developed for achieving the complete transition to renewables. However, the PICs keep experiencing issues and challenges such as a severe shortage of staff with in-depth technical knowledge of various renewable energy sources and their feasibility for different countries, loss of skilled workers, abrupt end to ambitious projects on data collection relating to some aspects of energy such as energy resource data, rural energy requirement and usage data, off-grid power data and data relating to utilisation of locally available energy sources such as wood used for cooking.

Another big challenge for the PICs is the near-total dependence on fossil fuels for the transport sector. With thousands of islands scattered over millions of kilometres, sea transport will remain one of the main modes of transport for these countries.

However, not much efforts are directed towards a gradual reduction on the usage of fossil fuels for this sector. The developed countries are trying several fuels as well as their combinations such as Ammonia, Methanol, Hydrogen, Biofuels and multiple alternative fuels. One of the decisions of the Senior Energy Officials Meeting was ‘to form a technology advisory group dedicated to research on emerging energy technologies in the region.’

There is a great need for the PICs to work with development partners, research and academic institutions, international energy institutions and organisations, and both local and international private organisations to achieve the goal of 100% renewable energy in the next few years. Large private organisations, especially those that are in the automobile or fossil fuels business, should consider offsetting their carbon footprint by funding renewable energy projects.

It can be achieved by clearly defining and implementing projects taking into consideration all the communities and ensuring that all the difficulties and challenges can be addressed effectively, sustained investment in these projects, retention of experienced staff, especially those who have worked on similar projects, and regular capacity building programmes – both short-term and long-term.

The PICs need Technicians, Engineers, Policy makers, Educators and Researchers, and this need can be met by proper planning, investment and attractive remuneration as well as career paths. The energy requirements of the PICs do not run into hundreds of GigaWatts, like the bigger countries. If those countries can make tremendous progress in the transition to renewables, there is no reason the PICs cannot!

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