Pacific Island nations have ambitious renewable energy targets, and have been making significant recent progress towards these goals. There are, however, a number of technical and institutional challenges arising, both in serving remote dispersed off-grid end-users, and as variable renewable energy (VRE) penetration levels increase on what are often relatively small grids.
UNSW Institute for Global Development and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency’s Knowledge Sharing Program (Mission Innovation Challenge 2) have provided funding for UNSW, USP and partners CSIRO, ITP Renewables and GSES to engage with stakeholders to identify key challenges towards high RE targets in Pacific Island countries (PICs), and potential solutions.
The aims of the workshop were to:
- Review the status, plans and challenges for energy access and renewables in Pacific Island Countries;
- Present the outcomes of workshops held in Sydney and Suva over the past 12 months: and
- Highlight related partner activities.