Program for sustainable power on Pacific islands

The Millennium Renewable Energy Program, which is funded by Australia and France, has been launched in order to provide a reliable electricity from sun and wind to rural and remote areas of the South Pacific Community’s 22 island-members.

“The Pacific region, as other parts of the developing world, has had enough of its share of the learning curve. It is now time to move forward by consolidating international, regional and national initiatives, to learn from past lessons, to maximize the use of local capacity and existing structures and demonstrate that renewable energy programs can do a lot more and a lot better,” said Jean Michel Durand, an international renewable energy expert with the new program.

“The focus is on sustainability. We are guided by this principle. If a proposal submitted to us meets our criteria for sustainability, then we are 100% behind it. When it is sustainable, it is automatically replicable,” said the SPC renewable energy experts. “We therefore see our effort as part and parcel of the national and regional initiatives. We are seeing a lot of new renewable energy projects coming into the region and we are well placed to coordinate these with our own initiatives and ensure there is no duplication of effort. Failure to effectively coordinate national and regional activities would be a sure way of repeating some of the not-too-encouraging stories of the 1980s and 90s.”

The program is not just about spending available donor dollars here and
there. It is about creating partnerships and making effective interventions that make a difference to the lives of the people of the SPC region, the group said in a press release. “This is probably what distinguishes SPC’s effort from earlier similar initiatives. Our approach is to treat renewable energy as a tool to meet the demand for sustainable development and better living conditions rather than just as a power source for rural folks. We believe strongly that the use of renewable energy is a tool for mitigating climate change too. By using solar or wind energy instead of diesel, for example, we will help reduce the fossil-fuel emissions that hasten climate change,” SPC explained.

The key to making the use of renewable energy truly sustainable, experts
said, is renewable local capacity and renewable funds. Renewable capacity because if the only local technician for a project is away, there is some other trained local people to rely on; renewable funds because users must, by collecting fees, generate enough revolving money to pay for maintenance and spares parts.

In any case, SPC said, the program is the first major regional renewable energy initiative to be managed by a Pacific islander.