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Pacific Islands Greenhouse Gas Abatement through Renewable Energy Project (PIGGAREP) - Tuvalu Interventions

Background

Tuvalu lies about 1100 km due north of Fiji centred at about 8° South Latitude and 177° E :longitude. The EEZ is 900,000 km 2 in area. The total land area of 26 km 2 is spread over eight islands. The largest, Vaitupu, has an area of about 5.6 km 2 while the smallest, Niulakita, has only 0.42 km 2 of land. Growth has been slow with the 1990 population 9,043 and the 2002 population 9,300.

Tuvalu ranks third among the Pacific developing member countries of the ADB in the Human Poverty Index. The primary problem for Tuvalu’s economic development is its small size and its isolation. The Tuvalu Trust Fund provides over 10% of the Government budget.

Baselines

The Electricity supply includes 2.4 MW of capacity on Funafuti, 260 kW of capacity on Vaitupu and from 160-180 kW on the other islands (excluding Niulakita where solar power is used). Technical losses are estimated to be 9%-10% which is somewhat high but non-technical losses are low at 4% to 5%.

Only solar photovoltaics and solar water heaters have proven successful in Tuvalu. Biomass is limited since most of the land is covered by coconut trees that have more economic value as coconut producers than as fuel. Biomass for energy is hampered by the poor soils that make recovery of the resource slow and by the limited land area that generally can be used more profitably for something other than growing fuel. The large number of coconut trees make biofuel production possible and that should be carefully investigated as it is a potentially large renewable energy resource.

Petroleum replaced biomass as the largest energy source sometime in the 1990s. The marine transport and power sectors are the largest users of fuel with about an even split of the 2.7 ML of ADO that was imported in 2003. The 790 kl of petrol imported in 2003 was divided between land transport and outboard motor use for boats. About 278,000 litres of petrol was shipped to the outer islands in 2003, virtually all used for outboard motors. The 400 kl of kerosene imported in 2003 was shared about half and half between domestic users and aviation.

Growth both in the land transport sector and electricity sector is expected to occur at a 3% to 4% rate over the next 10 years. LPG is expected to grow at nearly double that rate while kerosene use for households is expected to decline equally rapidly. The current CO 2 production is estimated at about 10.3 Gg/year with a 2013 projection of 13.0 Gg assuming no addition of renewable energy or energy efficiency measures. With the maximum expected use of solar energy and biofuels by 2013 saving about 0.8 Gg per year and energy efficiency measures saving about 1.4 Gg per year, a 17% reduction in GHG production in 2013 appears possible.

PIGGAREP SUPPORT

The PIGGAREP activities identified for Tuvalu will build on 3 key initiatives: (1) The Tuvalu Grid-connected PV project, (2) The Alofa Tuvalu's Amatuku Project and (3) Pacific Islands Cooperation Programme with the Government of Italy

The Tuvalu Grid-connected PV project

Installation of this US$412,000 project has been completed and the project has been commissioned. During the commissioning, an on-the-job training workshop was conducted for Tuvalu technicians and engineers.

The Alofa Tuvalu's Amatuku Project

Details to be provided.

Pacific Islands Cooperation Programme with the Government of Italy

The Government of Tuvalu is one of the six countries whose Italian funded energy programme is being managed by IUCN-Oceania Regional Office. Tuvalu has proposed the installation of a 40kW Photovoltaic system to be integrated into the electricity grid network at Vaitupu (Tuvalu Photovoltaic Electricity Network Integration Project - TPENIP), the largest island of the eight islands in Tuvalu. Although the largest island, Vaiutpu’s peak power demand is only about 50 kW during the daytime – this is sixteen times less than that of Funafuti, the business and political centre of Tuvalu.

IUCN and Tuvalu have agreed that a Consultant is to be recruited to oversee the project implementation and that the person recruited should be in post by August 2008. One of the priority tasks to be performed by the consultant is to carry out a scoping mission to Vaitupu together with an Engineer from TEC to determine the technical feasibility or otherwise of the proposed project and recommend the best possible option. The allocated budget is USD 800,000 and is expected to bring about a reduction of 184 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ).

PIGGAREP is supporting the e8 and the Italy/IUCN projects through a study it is currently funding to look at the best way of establishing and operationalising a Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Unit within the Tuvalu Electricity Corporation. The consultancy contract has been signed and the study has started in July and to be completed by end of August 2008.

PIGGAREP will also prepare and conduct the associated trainings for the TPENIP.

een signed and the study has started in July and to be completed by end of August 2008.