To meet the rising energy demand and mitigate the challenges induced by climate change, Fiji strives to enhance the generation of clean energy. Fiji has set ambitious target of having 100% electricity generations from renewable sources by the year 2036.
Abstract
To meet the rising energy demand and mitigate the challenges induced by climate change, Fiji strives to enhance the generation of clean energy. Fiji has set ambitious target of having 100% electricity generations from renewable sources by the year 2036. Accordingly, Fiji developed its National determined Contributions Implementation Roadmap (NDCIR) 2017-2030 to provide a temporal pathway with concrete mitigation actions and financing needs to achieve the transformational change. The overall mitigation target in the NDCIR is to reduce CO2 emissions by 30% from a BusinessAs-Usual (BAU) baseline scenario in 2030, by striving to reach 100% renewable energy power generation and through economy-wide energy efficiency. Subsequently, knowledge and responsiveness on renewable energy technologies have increased recently in Fiji since it has the potential to provide the important energy access, improve energy security and serve as a risk-mitigation measure against oil price volatility in addition to reducing the carbon emissions.
The islands in the archipelago of Fiji does receive ample sunshine intensity and has reasonable sunshine hours due to its position in the tropical zone. Given these excellent preconditions for renewable energy installations and the global trend of increasing adoption of renewables in the electricity grid, the implementation of small, medium and possibly larger scale solar projects country-wide will ensure a stable, reliable and independent power supply, at the same time could reduce electricity costs whilst fostering economic growth.
In 2018, Energy Fiji Limited produced more than half (54.86%) of hydro-power energy requirements, 0.25% of wind power and 3.87% of electricity was supplied by independent power producers (IPPs), namely Tropik Wood Industries Limited, Fiji
Sugar Corporation and Nabou Green Energy. The EFL energy mix was cleaner and more diversified compared to last year, as the dependence on diesel fuel fell from 48.72% of the overall energy generation mix in 2017 to 41.02 % in 2018.There is a need for more renewable energy sources to reduce dependency on diesel. In order to achieve more electricity generated through renewable energy sources is required since the current renewable resources, which are hydro, wind and IPP are fully utilized. Fiji receives enough solar radiation for electricity generation, thus solar energy could be used to increase in renewable energy penetration. To support the adoption of more renewable electricity into the grid this thesis studies the potential of developing a large scale 10 MW solar PV farm to supply electricity to the EFL’s grid on the island of Viti Levu, Fiji. The main objective of this study is to determine the generation potential of the large-scale solar farm in western division of Fiji. The study also intends to calculate the area required based on locally available solar modules. Moreover, the Geographic Information System was used with elevation overlaying technique in identifying the most suited site. Annual energy production was determined using solar radiation data from Fiji Meteorological Services and National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Economic analysis was performed to find out Net present Value, Internal Rate of Return and its payback period.
These analyses were performed using the Ret Screen software, which utilizes a fivestep examination including; The Energy Model, Cost Analysis, Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Analysis (discretionary), Financial Summary and Sensitivity and Risk Analysis. Three different locations were selected and economic analysis was performed to find the best
available site.
For the proposed 10 MW solar farm, computations show that an area of 72 acres is needed, hence a suitable parcel of land in Nadi was identified that was flood free, lying idle for many years and has access to road and grid. The expected capital cost would be around US $14.5 million dollars and the solar farm will generate 16914 MWh of electricity annually leading to a reduction in gross annual GHG emissions by 5412.4 tCO2. The payback period was found to be 10.8 years, which is far less than the lifetime of the project which is of 25 years. This 10 MW grid connected solar PV farm without battery storage would be viable for Fiji if a suitable site is selected to ease the initial capital costs and make it a resilient one.