A review of Fiji's energy situation: Challenges and strategies as a small island developing state

Abstract

Fiji is an island country with just over 300 small islands and approximately 853,000 people. It is a small island developing state (SIDS) that is heavily dependent on imported fossil fuel for its energy needs. The paper attempts to determine the past and current energy situation in Fiji, challenges faced and strategizes to overcome these challenges. In 2014, Fiji generated 859 GWh of grid electricity from 259.8 MW of power plants. Here, 45.4 % of grid electricity was produced by hydro, 50.9 % by diesel generators and the remaining by biomass. However, Fiji's transport sector is completely dependent on fossil fuels with fuel import bill equivalent to an average 58 % of export earnings and taking up 21 % of total import bill. The smallness of Fiji and dispersed islands within Fiji group leads to many challenges to have accessible, affordable and sustainable energy supply. These challenges are comprehensively discussed in this paper.Strategies such as increasing private-public partnership in renewable energy projects, changing customer behavior, setting up a credible feed-in tariff structure, developing locally owned business in renewable energy and energy efficiency, setting up of risk mitigation facilities and strengthening institutions supporting energy sector are discussed to overcome or minimize challenges.

Adoption of Grid-Tie Solar System at Residential Scale

“…Nowadays, rural home lighting is mostly powered by PV systems known as stand-alone solar systems, as illustrated in Figure 1, which is more relevant for PICs [14][15][16][17]. The most classical configuration layout of a grid-connected PV system is shown in Figure 2.…”

“…2019, 2 3 Currently, the commercialised grid-connected system for a household based on the classical configuration stand-alone system is quite expensive as it consists of more components. The components are PV cells, charge controllers, battery packs and converting devices, which make it expensive compared to the grid-connected system, as it comprises the PV cells and a grid-tie converter [1][2][3][4][14][15][16][17][18]. Thus, having a grid-tie solar system for a household is cheaper in terms of capital cost and installation.…”

“…Load analysis is vital when installing solar power in a household. The average energy consumption of a household is influenced by many factors, like the construction and size of the house, climate, season and members in a family [15]. The typical house load is comprised of mainly lighting load, TV, refrigerator and a radio (see Table 1).…”

Integrated Energy Planning with a High Share of Variable Renewable Energy Sources for a Caribbean Island

“…It produced 50.9% of the electricity demand by diesel generators in 2014, with fuel import having a 21% share of total imports [9]. Thus, the authors stated that strategies for a quick transition to larger shares of renewable energy sources should be found in order to reduce the dependence on fuel imports [9].…”

“…It produced 50.9% of the electricity demand by diesel generators in 2014, with fuel import having a 21% share of total imports [9]. Thus, the authors stated that strategies for a quick transition to larger shares of renewable energy sources should be found in order to reduce the dependence on fuel imports [9]. As the authors carried out a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats), they reported only yearly potentials of different technologies, without more detailed supply-demand analysis at a finer temporal resolution.…”