Two days after being elected as Prime Minister again in Papua New Guinea, James Marape took his first official trip as the country’s leader while hitting the ground running in groundbreaking clean green energy projects he has been championing over the past two years.

He met with leaders of Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) in Singapore yesterday to progress the talks further.

After numerous questions on the trip to Singapore taken by Marape on Friday afternoon a statement was released about midnight through other social media platforms.

• READ MORE: Other reports on the PNG elections

In the morning, the PM’s Department released the statement at 7.30 am after the country became aware of Marape’s trip to Singapore.

The Prime Minister flew to Singapore to continue important trade and investment conversations, including those on Papua LNG, Pasca LNG, Pn’yang LNG and also to get Porgera and Wafi-Golpu sanctioned.

He said from Singapore that FFI had voiced its intention to partner with Papua New Guinea in a big way to harvest clean green energy from both hydro and geothermal sources and to move into solar and wind energy production.

Currently, FFI has identified and set up project sites in Gulf Province for hydro and West New Britain Province for geothermal work and has been working in these areas since the signing of two important agreements since 2021.

Clean green energy way of future
Marape said from Singapore: “With global consciousness of fossil fuel-induced global warming, clean green energy is the way to move into the future and this meeting follows on the head agreement PNG has signed with FFI to progress investment in this energy sector.”

The Prime Minister also visited the PNG High Commission in Singapore with a view to strengthening it further as a trade and investment office while getting the PNG government to increase trade and investment with the ASEAN and APEC countries.

He said: “The Singapore office will be given more support in that context in partnership with Investment Promotion Authority, the Kumul companies, National Fisheries and Forestry authorities, and our Agriculture and Livestock departments so that it coordinates export and trade into the lucrative Asian market of over 2 billion people who need food and energy, and products PNG can mass produce into the future as we are planning under my government.”

Republished with permission.

Last Sunday, Emmanuel Macron was re-elected France’s president, beating far-right and anti-EU candidate Marine Le Pen.

“Making France a great green nation, that is our project,” Macron tweeted on the night of his victory, after he received 58.5 percent of the votes against 40.5 percent for Le Pen — a lower margin than in the 2017 election, when he got 66 percent of the votes.

In the election campaign, Macron declared he would make France “the first major nation to abandon gas, oil and coal.”

• READ MORE: Other French presidential election reports

While climate advocates are breathing a sigh of relief that Le Pen — who threatened to dismantle wind turbines — lost, Macron’s climate record to date has fallen short of the rhetoric.

Coming to power in 2017 on a promise to “make climate great again”, Macron inherited an underperforming state. France was successfully sued for failing to meet its 2015-18 emissions objectives and is is the only EU member state to have missed its 2020 renewable energy target.

After five years in power, the government remains off track to meet its 40 percent emissions reduction target by 2030 compared to 1990 levels — a goal which it will need to ramp up to align with the EU’s collective goal of at least 55 percent cuts.

Macron has said he wants to accelerate the construction of offshore wind farms, develop nuclear power and a large-scale programme to retrofit homes and make them more energy-efficient. But the deployment of renewables and uptake of electric transport has been slow.

Only one offshore wind farm
France has only built one offshore wind farm. Macron announced this year that France will build 50 offshore wind farms by 2050, with 40GW of capacity.

France’s weak record on deploying renewables is largely due to administrative hurdles and court challenges, especially for wind farm projects, Nicolas Berghmans, Iddri’s lead European affairs and climate expert, told Climate Home News.

The time required for the installation of a wind farm in France is around eight years – significantly higher than in other EU countries, he said.

In 2021, a French court awarded damages to a Belgian couple who claimed that a wind turbine near their house in southern France caused a range of negative health impacts, referred to as “wind syndrome”, including headaches, insomnia and depression.

Construction has started on offshore wind farms “so we should continue to see an acceleration of renewable energy deployment in the coming years,” said Berghmans.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has forced many EU countries to reconsider their long-standing opposition to nuclear power as they seek to reduce their dependence on Russian fossil fuels. France has relied heavily on nuclear energy for decades.

The country derives around 70 percent of its electricity from nuclear energy and is home to 56 nuclear power reactors. In February, the government announced plans to build six new reactors and to consider building a further eight.

Campaigners are not convinced.

New nuclear energy project expensive
Any new nuclear energy project will be expensive and not come online until 2035, said Raphael Hanoteaux, a senior policy advisor on gas politics at E3G.

“Solar, wind and storage are already cheaper than nuclear, and will be even cheaper in 12 to 15 years,” he said.

“French politicians are obsessed with the nuclear industry, which diverts attention from real solutions,” said Neil Makaroff, EU policy officer at Climate Action Network France. “Not a euro of the [coronavirus] recovery plan has been dedicated to renewables. A bad signal.”

“The existing nuclear power plant fleet is quickly ageing, as its underperformance this winter clearly showed, and it is today unlikely that it will be replaced with new reactors with an equivalent generation capacity,” said Berghmans. “Renewable production will have to close this large gap.”

China’s coal miners face a challenge to capture leaked methane

If Macron is to achieve his goal of reducing France’s reliance on Russian fossil fuels, he should focus on transport and housing, Sebastien Treyer, executive director of the think tank Iddri, said.

Enabling access to electric mobility and ensuring large-scale energy efficiency in buildings should be priorities for Macron’s short-term climate strategy, he said.

Electric mobility on rise
Electric mobility is on the rise in France, but it is not growing as strongly as in other EU countries, such as the Netherlands and Norway, said Berghmans. This is partly due to delays in deploying charging infrastructure, as well as to insufficient incentives for the uptake of electric vehicles, he said.

French citizens rely heavily on cars — with 75 percent using a car for their daily commute — and investments in cycling and public transport are lagging, he added.

A carbon tax on fuel has been frozen since 2018, when a proposed hike triggered widespread protests and gave birth to the “gilets jaunes” movement.

“The shadow of yellow vests still looms large. It’s likely Macron’s new government will remain extremely cautious about reintegrating the carbon tax to its arsenal of measures,” Lola Vallejo, climate programme director at Iddri, said.

The country’s citizens’ assembly has identified mandatory minimum energy performance standards for buildings as a key measure to force deep renovation of buildings but this measure has been watered down by the government, said Makaroff.

“Renovation efforts are still timid considering the triple menace of climate change, the cost of living crisis, and the Russia-Ukraine war,” Vallejo said.

“Public support for [this] is still insufficient and poorly targeted to the deep energy renovations that are needed to achieve climate targets,” said Berghmans.

The government should offer more solutions and alternatives to poorer households, whose financial balances are directly impacted by rising fuel prices, he said.

Isabelle Gerretsen is a Climate Change News writer. Republished under Creative Commons.

By Sri Krishnamurthi with Peter Wilson in Auckland

Solar-powered batteries are the key to a future without electricity grids for Polynesian countries in the Pacific (Samoa, Cook Islands and Tonga), a study has found.

The study is funded by the New Zealand Institute for Pacific Research (NZIPR) to assess the feasibility of a low-cost, energy future – titled “Polynesian pathways to a future without electricity grids”.

The first phase of the research, conducted by Peter Wilson (principal economist and head of Auckland business for the NZ Institute of Economic Research) and his team of Professor Basil Sharp (Auckland University professor and chair in energy economics) and Gareth William (head of Solar City Energy Services), queries whether distributed solar electricity is a practical alternative to grid-based electricity.

“The project is investigating the impact of new technologies on electricity sectors in the Pacific, we are looking at whether solar panels and batteries could augment or eventually replace electricity grids and large diesel generators,” says principal investigator Wilson.

“First phase is showing that the costs of both solar panels and batteries is diminishing very quickly and it won’t be very long before they will be economic in the Pacific and so that you have the potential to start radically changing how energy is delivered to Pacific nations.”

While he believes it is technologically feasible now, the prohibitive cost of the batteries at the moment – the leading provider of solar batteries being Elon Musk’s Tesla Powerwall – is something that has economically got to arrive yet, but the trend is towards costs being reduced significantly.

He says that within 10 years batteries and solar panels together could have a large impact on existing electricity sectors in the islands, and he sees that as a positive development because it will make it easier to extend electricity to people who don not currently have it at a cheap cost.

Decisions needed
However, he says, it does mean that the island governments must consider what they do with their existing generators and existing distribution assets if they are found to be non-competitive against the new technology.

“While it is not economically feasible yet, the trends are there and so it’s something that the Pacific governments should start thinking about,” says Wilson.

“At the moment they’re focusing very much on using solar panels to replace their electricity generation, they’re just connecting to their existing electricity grids and existing technologies.

“We think the batteries are going to change the equation and that is something that should be looked at, and the point is that this is not just something for the Pacific Islands, it’s happening around the world and a lot of countries and a lot of companies are trying to work out what to do, but they don’t really have a solution.”

He is expecting exciting new technological developments in batteries as a means of storing electricity into the future.

“The basic technology is not changing. What is changing is the cost of the batteries and their efficiency, how much power they can hold,” says Wilson.

“We’ve all seen how cell phones have become smaller and smaller over the few last years, and a large amount of that is because the batteries getting smaller and better, electric vehicles are doing the same thing. It is the same technology just using it for a different purpose.”

Hawai’ian benchmark
Hawai’i is an example they studied because it is like the South Pacific countries.

“Hawai’i which has a similar geography to the South Pacific, it’s North Pacific and tropical country with small islands and they too have moved to replace the diesel-fired generators with solar panels,” says Wilson.

“That’s a good benchmark to look at on the technological side but the economics are slightly different because it’s bigger Island, but what we particularly looked is that is an example of what could happen.”

The next phase is due to begin as soon as the NZIPR give it the greenlight.

Peter Wilson explains the way forward. “Hopefully it starts sometime this year and that involves going out to the islands and doing on-the-spot investigations, talking to people, at the moment phase one was desk research based in New Zealand.”

“So far the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) has been very supportive of the project They’ve been funding quite large numbers of solar panels into the Pacific and they are quite keen to look at this next development which is adding batteries to that investment.”

He says the electricity generation industries are facing a major change in the evolution of the technology with what they do in their business.

‘Technological revolution’
“These industries are facing a technological revolution. They have choices, how do they respond? do they try to get ahead the curve, do they bury head in sand, do they try and make it someone else’s problem.

“We are seeing around the world this issue is being addressed, in some countries, some companies are very supportive and wanting to get to get on the bandwagon.”

Ultimately the goal is renewable energy to expand access to affordable, reliable and clean energy in the Pacific. Renewable energy targets feature prominently in all their Nationally Determined Contributions submitted under the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Already a change is underway in Australia and New Zealand with a slow but sure transformation to renewable energy.

“It’s starting to change now. You are seeing in Auckland the lines company Vector is starting to invest in large batteries (Tesla Powerwall batteries) rather than just look at extensions to the grid.

This is a project that can change the economies of scale of Pacific countries and Peter Wilson is banking on it to transform lives in Samoa, Cook Islands and Tonga.

The Pacific Media Centre shares content with the NZ Institute for Pacific Research as part of a collaboration agreement. The video was edited by Blessen Tom as part of the partnership.

A major solar energy project in Manu’a, American Samoa, will bring the island nation a step closer to having one hundred percent renewable energy.

American Samoa Power Authority’s renewable energy project manager, Mike Langier, discussed the Manu’a projects at the American Samoa Economic Development Authority Board.

He said at the moment gallons of diesel is shipped to American Samoa for power.

“On average we are shipping around 55 to 60 barrels of diesel over to those islands a week.

‘It is not the cleanest method’, he said.

“When we reduce our diesel consumption to almost zero, at least for the generators, it will be pretty amazing.”

The biggest project is based in Ta’u and would supply 1.4 megawatts of power.

The system consists of solar photovaltaic panels which converts sunlight directly into electricity. It will also include six-hours of battery storage, three back up generators and provide for 100 percent of Ta’u’s power supply.

On Ofu, a smaller size solar project is being built.  It will provide 80 percent of power for Ofu and Olosega.

Digicel Asia-Pacific, a digital communications leader in developing markets, has joined the Business Call to Action (BCtA) with a commitment to make digital communications, solar power and data services more available in Papua New Guinea’s most remote areas.

The company aims to extend 3G coverage to more than 80 percent of the population by 2020 and expand mobile penetration to 60 percent of the addressable population.

Working with both local and international partners, Digicel has committed to expand the use of solar power solutions for households across PNG.

The BCtA is a global initiative that aims to support private sector efforts to fight poverty through its core business. It is supported by several international organisations and hosted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

“Our project has two key objectives. To expand our network and data services in Papua New Guinea, meaning more people living in remote areas will gain access to reliable telecommunications,” says Michael Murphy, chief executive officer of Digicel Asia-Pacific.

“Secondly, by working with local and international partners, we aim to see the the use of solar power increase dramatically to areas where access to electricity for recharging is limited. This will help even the most isolated communities to enter the digital age.”

The company has already invested more than US$800 million in Papua New Guinea, providing world-class telecommunications and IT services across the country.

Narrowing Digital Divide
Digicel’s inclusive business model aims to significantly narrow the “Digital Divide” between Papua New Guinea’s urban and rural areas, fostering state-of-the-art communications between the country’s remote regions and the rest of the world.

With a population of 7.3 million, Papua New Guinea is the largest economy among developing countries in the Pacific region, yet has low telecommunication penetration rates compared to other Pacific island countries.

The island country’s rough terrain and lack of infrastructure effectively isolate the 85 percent of its people who live outside cities.

Following many years of inefficient coverage, Papua New Guinea’s government reformed the IT sector in 2005, opening the door for private entrepreneurship.

Since its founding in 2007, Digicel has become the country’s largest mobile operator by increasing mobile penetration among rural areas that previously lacked basic telecom infrastructure, and offering affordable products and services to low-income communities.

However, Digicel recognises that its expanding network has limited value without access to affordable power for recharging communication devices.

To date, approximately only 10 percent of the total households in Papua New Guinea are connected to the national electricity grid.

Solar power access
Access to solar power would not only facilitate greater connectivity: it will enable millions of people to cost-effectively and efficiently cook and light their homes, allow children to study after dark and spur economic development.

Solar power also reduces indoor air pollution and mitigates the risk of fires started by kerosene lamps, candles and wood burning.

Furthermore, it will allow more people to keep their devices charged, giving them greater access to communication and information via voice, SMS and data services.

“Digicel’s communication initiative is a prime example how an inclusive business can bridge the economic divide between rural and urban areas, and fuel developing economies”, says Paula Pelaez, programme manager of the BCtA.

“We welcome this initiative which not only opens rural people’s access to communications, but has the potential to foster education, expand livelihoods and promote greater participation in society.”

As part of its BCtA commitment, the company has extended an invitation for investors, government and development partners in the region to partner in implementing its inclusive business model.

Digicel’s news website Loop PNG