Seychelles achieves sustainable renewable energy goal target |25 June 2021
Minister Joubert and his delegation touring the facilities on Ile de Romainville yesterday (Photo: Joena Meme)
The Minister for Agriculture, Climate Change and Environment, Flavien Joubert, has said that Seychelles will be working to achieve the targeted 15% of our total power demand through renewable energy by 2030 now that the country produces 12MW peak of renewable electricity, the 5% sustainable renewable energy targeted for 2020.
Minister Joubert made the statement following a visit to the up and running solar farm and wind turbines and facilities on Ile de Romainville yesterday afternoon. He was accompanied by the principal secretary for Energy and Climate Change, Rebecca Loustau-Lalanne; the chief executive of the Public Utilities Corporation (PUC), Phillip Morin; the chief executive of the Seychelles Energy Commission, Tony Imaduwa; PUC deputy CEO, Joel Valmont and board members among others.
The aim of the renewable energy project is to reduce the emission of green house gases related to fossil fuel consumption and to lower the annual fuel consumption related to electricity production.
Built on the southern half of Ile de Romainville, the solar farm of 18,000 panels consist of a 5MW peak of 15,000 panels and a 1MW peak of 3,000 panels. The two plants were commissioned in April 2021.
Through these two solar plants and wind turbines (6MW peak) in the country of which three are located on Ile du Port, the country is able to produce 12 MW peak of electricity, the sustainable goal target for 2020, which as a result of delays due to Covid-19, the achievement is being felt now in 2021.
“The discussion I’ve had with PUC points to the need for us to actually look for additional opportunities and ways to increase the capacity of the plant here and to integrate new systems on the grids on Mahé, Praslin and La Digue so that we can actually push into the system more power,” Minister Joubert said.
The minister noted that with the growing interest in renewable energy globally and also in the country, the 15% target of sustainable renewable energy by 2030 will be achievable and to speed up the process, government will have to create the right environment for the private sector to join in and invest in producing more power to supply to the grid.
He added that vulnerable families that were being assisted with solar panels on their houses, under the renewable energy programme, will continue to enjoy their benefits. He further noted that a system is being put in place by PUC and the Agency for Social Protection to help other households that are having difficulty to pay their electricity bills, and if all goes well, they will get to see a reduction on their bills as from July 2021. The targeted list is 500 households.
In November 2018, PUC embarked on developing the solar farm on Ile de Romainville the commissioning of which was delayed for 2020 due to the pandemic. This follows the commissioning of the eight wind turbines in June 2013.The PV project was funded through a concessional loan from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and from the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD), amounting to approximately USD 8.5m. The remaining balance for the project came from PUC’s equity from which derived an investment of a 3.4MWh battery, located at Roche Caiman, to stabilise the electricity grid and compensate for the fluctuations in the energy output from other renewable energy sources.
Mr Morin said that the 5% renewable energy achievement goal will save the country 5 million litres of fuel per year, equivalent to R41 million in savings.
Speaking on the future of the Seychelles Energy Commission as a regulatory body, Minister Joubert said that even functioning without a board, the commission’s role as a regulatory body stays the same until its future role will be decided through recommendations that will come from discussions taking place by the ministry, along with the Attorney General’s Office and representatives from the World Bank.
Patrick Joubert
