KEY POINTS:
APIA - Samoa aims to achieve 20 per cent renewable energy usage by 2030, and part of that goal is to create and interest in the issue of energy.
According to Renewable Energy Advisor to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Apia, Thomas Jensen, the only time
people care about energy, is when there's a lack of it.
He says otherwise people switch on the lights without thinking about the energy they are using.
Jensen says that renewable energy is the only certain way for the Pacific to survive the energy game and stand unaffected by the global crisis.
"The Pacific can absolutely develop renewable energy so as to minimise its dependence on the western world for energy," Jensen said.
Solomone Fifita, Manager of the Pacific Islands Greenhouse Gas Abatement through Renewable Energy Project (PIGGAREP) based at the Secretariat of the Pacific Environment Program (SPREP) agrees.
"If one has to look at the outcome of the Pacific Leaders Forum meeting in Niue, they have expressed their need to prioritize renewable energy."
Samoa in 2006 committed that by 2030, 20 per cent of our total energy consumption will be from renewable and clean sources.
Fifita said: "The common characteristic is that the upfront cost is very high, but the ongoing maintenance cost is fairly low. Compare that to diesel generation, where you buy a generator cheaply and buy fuel everyday that is costly."
Currently Samoa's energy consumption is mainly dominated by demand for biomass which still remains the number one cooking fuel.
Biomass use in Samoa consists of firewood, coconut shells and husks which are mainly utilised in domestic cooking.
Solar energy technology is still insignificant by comparison to national consumption but continual growth in imports of solar energy technologies was recorded between 2002 and 2007.
The Ministry of Finance (MOF) says that renewable energy currently utilised in Samoa include biomass, solar and hydro-power.
The Energy Review says that hydropower over the past decade has been used extensively and currently supplies around 40 per cent of electricity to the main grid in Upolu.
Samoa's first small hydro electric power station was installed at Alaoa in 1959.
Throughout the next 50 years additional small run-of-river hydro stations were commissioned progressively, as well as Afulilo reservoir with Samoa's largest single hydro capacity of 4 megawatts (MW) according to the Electric Power Corporation (EPC.)
The Transport Sector continues to use the most energy in Samoa with a 47.3 per cent of total energy consumption in 2007 alone.
- NEWSLINE SAMOA
