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Tonga and World Bank developing energy roadmap with focus on renewables

Tonga and World Bank developing energy roadmap with focus on renewables Tonga, South Pacific (source: flickr/ tbdevries, creative commons)
Alexander Richter 14 Sep 2012

The announced partnership of Pacific island state Tonga and the World Bank, is developing a 10-year roadmap to shift its energy supply to renewables, with geothermal one of the likely options.

The World Bank believes that a 10-year plan for changing the energy sector of the Pacific Island state of Tonga will improve access to electricity for the population.

The country is, like many other Pacific island states, is heavily dependent on fossil fuels for its electricity generation. Tonga therefore – like its neighbours – is looking at renewable energy options to phase out the dependency on oil.

As part of this the World Bank and Tonga partner in developing a 10-year roadmap to shift its energy supply to renewables, despite phasing out fossil fuels completely is not an option yet.

The roadmap is under the implementation phase,and the World Bank has approved a project that will provide the country with resources supporting the increased absorption of sustainable energy.”

There is a lot of work to be done to evaluate to see if geothermal is a viable option, but a report from 2011 describes it as a “moderate level geothermal prospect” and that given the dependency on oil, “geothermal exploration” could be of “great strategic importance for the country”.

The authors of the report see the need for “prioritized exploration of thermal areas and identification of elevated thermal gradients based on surface measurements”.

In the 10-year plan, geothermal therefore should be included on this volcanic island state in the Pacific.

Sources: Radio Australia, McCoy-West and others “Geothermal Resources in the a Pacific Islands” (Proceedings Stanford Geothermal Workshop 2011)