The renewable energy roadmap (RERM) aims to convert the Honiara electricity grid to 100 percent renewable energy by year 2030. Honiara is the largest electricity grid and demand load center in the country that subsidizes the cost of delivering electricity to provincial and other growth centers.
The present renewable energy contribution into the Honiara grid is only around 1percent while the rest of the energy supply is from diesel fired generators.
“Our dependency on imported fuel has so much negative implications on our socio-economic development. Our high electricity tariff considered as the highest in the world provides unattractive business environment leading to high unemployment and high cost of living,” Tovosia said.
“I urge development partners, interested developers and multilateral financiers to support feasibility studies and development of other indigenous renewable energy sources like geothermal, biomass and additional hydropower resources to increase the renewable energy combination in the country and minimize envisaged technical challenges like availability of spinning reserves and limitations of required land space in the case of solar,” he added.
The roadmap recommends major reform in the energy that would involve changes in the present legal, regulatory, institutional, financial and management framework which requires capacity building that development partners can render assistance.
Tovosia commended the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) for responding positively to the Solomon Islands Government’s request for the development of this new roadmap while at the same time applauded the Board and Management of Solomon Power, respective government ministries and the Tokyo Electric Power Services Company Ltd (TEPSCO) and Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting LLC (DTC) for their technical and professional work in developing the RERM.
-GCU
