Small Island State RRR

7/28/2019 Small Island State RRR

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LCEDN Rapid Response Reviews:

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What are the optimal combinations of village scale (ca. 500 household)

solar PV-hybrid off grid electricity generation systems for small island

states?

Background: Small Island Energy Issues.

Small island states share many of the energy access issues faced by poor communities across

the developing world. For example, 70% of the Pacific Region population does not have

access to electricity (Mohanty 2012) and the total is as high as 80+ % in e.g. the Solomon

Islands and Vanuatu (UNESCAP, 2010). In addition, high levels of solid fuel use (90% ofhouseholds in Papua New Guinea: Mohanty, 2012) have caused substantial problems of

deforestation and soil erosion in some small island states. The electricity generation that does

exist is strongly dependent upon imported oil, natural gas or coal, the cost of which is

exacerbated by high transport costs (Syngellakis, 2012). The cost of these fuels can constitute

a substantial percentage of total imports and imposes strong vulnerability, for example, to oil

price shocks (and opportunity costs in terms of the use of scarce foreign exchange earnings).

The high cost of electricity imposed by this dependence upon imported fuel sources has been

exacerbated by the frequently sub-optimal size of generators (Gray, 2010) that may be

inappropriate to community size, all of which contributes to electricity costs that can be as

much as twice as high as in industrialised countries. Systemic inefficiency also contributes

in other ways through, for example, high rates of transmission loss in small island power

utilities (higher than 20% in some Pacific Island communities) and the small size of existing

and potential demand for electricity, which reduces the cost benefits of scale generallyassociated with conventional grid generation (Weisser, 2004). On the other hand, despite the

clear potential, until recently (see below) there has been only limited investment in

renewable alternatives in most small island states due to factors such as: limited access to

information (particularly in the context of rapid cost changes within the sector), limitedknowledge of RES potential in individual states, lack of finance and poor institutional

capacity (Weisser, 2004; Gray, 2010).

Resource Potential.

Small island states are generally well-endowed with a wide variety of renewable energyresources which have the potential to make significant contributions to meeting energy

needs. Scale-related advantages, smaller community sizes and the short distances from

substantial wind/wave/tide resources, for example, can be added, to specific resourceadvantages such as biomass/biofuel potential for CO2 reduction and energy value (e.g.

sugarcane, cassava, jatropha, coconut, oil palm, pongamia and algae, as well as thesubstantial biomass potential of the ocean) and geothermal potential in, for example, Pacific

Rim nations. There is growing potential (given increasing global fuel prices) forkeying

biomass exploitation into existing economic resources (sugar, palm, coconut oil) and

energy efficiency measures (efficient bulbs, energy saving campaigns, building design etc.)

1This rapid response review was edited by Ed Brown and Jonathan Cloke on behalf of the LCEDN, it draws

upon contributions from Ed Brown, Ben Campbell, Jon Cloke, Aled Jones and Christophe Rynikiewicz..


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are likely to have a greater effect at smaller scales. Lastly, proximity and community size

gives more flexibility for small-scale/multi-scalar projects such as small hydro at thecommunity level, pico-hydro where appropriate and solar/PV back-up systems, as well as

larger tidal/wave systems for larger communities/strategic economic uses.

Emerging Initiatives.

Despite the historical lack of investment in renewables noted above, recent years have seen

the establishment of a wide range of renewable initiatives in small island states, which have

begun to take advantage of the potential noted above. These have included biomass, solar,

wind and biofuel developments (Mohanty, 2012); Fiji for example already supplies over 50%of its energy consumption through biomass and several islands (including the Cook Islands)

have recently made commitments to achieve 100% of electricity generation via renewablesources by 2020 (APCTT-UNESCAP, 2010). Among the most interesting initiatives are

those which play to the resource potential of small island states, for instance projects inPacific Island states that are deploying coconut, copra and palm-oil based biofuels.

Small Island Considerations.

Aside from the considerations that should pertain to all off-grid systems, i.e. costs,acceptability, robustness and simplicity of operations and maintenance (Jones, 2012), there

are, however, plainly special considerations that apply to small island states, particularlyin terms of resource constraints and economic optimality. There is, for example, a trade-off to

be made between biomass/biofuel initiatives and other income generating uses for

commodities such as copra, palm and coconut and indeed for the land itself. There are alsosubstantial environmental considerations (particularly on those islands where solid fuel use

is already high) including deforestation and consequent soil erosion, environmental pollution

through waste, food and fuel shortages through price interaction, and potential adverse

impacts on water sources (Mohanty, 2012: 268).

In small islands vulnerability to all of the above adverse effects is substantial and

therefore the key to the optimum forms of small island renewable energy technologies islikely to be hybridity and variation, not choosing one/a few sources that replace one form

of fuel dependency with another, which has additional environmental drawbacks. Current

vulnerability to fuel-oil costs however is overwhelming and virtually any combination of

RETs would lead to lower dependency and vulnerability than current patterns of fueluse.

Small island states are so diverse, however, that it is unwise to be too proscriptive in theidentification of the optimal mix of energy sources. Elaborating upon the themes drawn

from the literature reviewed above, we can, nonetheless, make some general observations

about the key issues that need addressing within the design of any energy strategy for a small

island state. These include:

(i) Scale what makes the island/village vulnerable is also an advantage in terms of thecloseness to resources, the size of communities and the diversity of RET potential;

and it also offers advantages in terms of the opportunities for deployment of


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multiple RET resources in different locations (proximity to the sea, inland etc.).

Clearly, these advantages will differ from context to context;

(ii)Cost Generalisations about relative costs of even individual RETs across smallisland states are unwise as these can vary significantly depending on location

(reflecting issues such as: transport and logistics, labour costs, technical capacity,

competing demands on energy resource-use and income levels and willingness to

pay for services: Syngellakis, 2012). Despite the urgency of the need to embark

upon profound changes in energy strategy within many small islands states, there

is no substitute for detailed local cost evaluation.

(iii)Environmental Impact auditing existing environmental problems and resourceuse/over-use to ensure best fit with additional RE use requirements is an

absolutely essential element to any small island RE strategy design this shouldbe connected to technology audits (e.g. those undertaken by the Global

Sustainable Energy Islands Initiative (GSEII) designed to optimize the mostappropriate energy security mix.

(iv)Use of modelling tools There are an increasing range of sophisticated modellingtools that can play an important role in determining how different renewable

energy systems might be best connected to existing energy systems within

particular island state contexts and to make decisions about the balance betweendifferent technologies. These can provide key inputs into the development of

policies but need to be treated with some caution in terms of how they are actedupon within weak regulatory environments and polarized policy contexts and how

they cope with rapidly changing scenarios (Weisser, 2004).

(v) Questions of ownership, deregulation and privatization problems of lack ofcapacity and interest of authorities in exploring alternative systems is a key

challenge in some states, there is some debate, however, about the record of

deregulation in meeting those challenges (the lack of private sector interest in

investing in relatively small systems, the perils of replacement of state monopolyby a private one).

(vi)Stakeholder involvement previous small island initiatives have lacked sufficientinvolvement of/collaboration with stakeholders, this is absolutely crucial to the

success of any initiative (Jafar, 2000; Woods et al, 2006); - one example relates to

the handling of the differential social impacts of removal of subsidisation ofconventional energy costs (e.g. through ending supporting lower costs of imported

fuels through general taxation).

(vii) Regional initiatives importance of engagement with key international initiativessuch as the Sustainable Energy Partnership for the Americas (SEPA), the GSEII

and Climate Change Funding modalities (CCF) to support the evolution of

national strategies and village-level transformation of energy systems.


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Documents

Small Island State RRR