It is now a known fact and a widely accepted concept that for economical as well as ecological reasons, renewable energy is the answer to the world’s future power needs. 

Small island states like Seychelles are particularly concerned and vulnerable in view of continuous change in the climate pattern, caracterised by temperature and sea level rise, ice melting, erosion etc. As you read those lines, many small islands simply face the imminent risk of disappearing under the rising oceans!

As a world leader in environment protection, Seychelles has for some time now been in the forefront to create a louder and clearer voice for Small Island States on the issue, and to bring their fragile ecological situation on the world’s agenda. 

After numerous meetings and conferences with concerned countries, of which a last one was held this week at the Coral Strand Hotel in Beau Vallon, Seychelles seems to be ready to captain the small islands’ team and champion their cause at the International Conference in Samoa at the beginning of September.

Mr Agricole addressing delegates at the workshop yesterday

On the local scene, a national campaign is underway to encourage the population to make more use of renewable energy, while the country has itself invested in wind farms, attractive financial schemes have been put into place for the purchase of energy-saving appliances. 

The prime time daily television adverts also show a keen interest to develop and extend the market, though some experts believe that we are sometimes importing bad equipment from the wrong market.

What should be done in the short and middle term in order to gradually replace fossil fuel with renewable methods remains a pertinent question. 
How, at what pace and at what cost is it to be done? 

Energy providers such as the Public Utilities Corporation (PUC) should adapt and become more economically friendly while at the same time are being asked to reduce their power load. 

The situation may seem simple from the onset. But will this not result in more fuel consumption, higher maintenance costs and the need to invest in more generators? 

One solution could be to replace diesel generators with gas turbines. However, it seems that such an attempt has failed in the past.

If energy experts and environmentalists believe that renewable energy standards must be put in place in order to renew energy market growth and reduce negative environmental impacts and if the Seychelles Energy Commission is currently working in this direction, local actors remain skeptical on the matter. Some believe that the established models will not necessarily work here.

The chief executive (CEO) of PUC, Philip Morin, said that if renewable energy will permit PUC to sell less electricity units, this will logically mean a loss to the company.

“We save but we don’t sell,” the PUC boss said. 
So he feels that though in an open economy we should let the market factors decide what is best, there should be a balance and we should not give the wrong impression to the people as of what is best for the country. 

At the same time, Mr Morin has warned that the future will be challenging to PUC as in order to maintain the stability of the energy network, the company will have to review its operating system.

On behalf of the Seychelles Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), its vice-chairman Dolor Ernesta has also expressed his concern. He fears that the country will lose rather than gain as the PUC will suffer more from wear and tear on its equipment which will be still needed but may be underutilised. 

In a workshop organised yesterday by the Seychelles Energy Commission in the cadre of the World Bank/SIDS DOC project, consultants from German and American partner firms Energynautics and Meister Consultants Group clarified some of the uncertainties to actors in the local energy sector. 

The half-day seminar had brought together technicians from the Seychelles Energy Commission itself, the Ministry of Environment and Energy, PUC, SCCI as well as private businesses.

Opening the workshop, the principal secretary for Environment and Energy Wills Agricole insisted that the transformation of the Seychelles’ energy sector through the development and deployment of renewable energy resources and technologies is not “just an option but the only way”.  

“Seychelles is pleased to continue supporting sustainable energy to improve human development and achieve sustainable development objectives at the local and national, levels. As you may be aware, our work in the area of sustainable energy focuses on four pillars: strengthening national policy frameworks to support energy for poverty reduction, promoting rural energy services to support growth and equity, promoting clean energy technologies to mitigate climate change and increasing access to investment financing for sustainable energy. […] Seychelles has made progress in developing energy policies and programmes put in place as we try to decrease the amount of scarce foreign exchange used to purchase petroleum fuel for the provision of more than 90 percent of primary energy. More over Seychelles have made genuine ambitious commitments and have independently developed energy policies and strategies geared toward transformation to a low carbon economy,” Mr Agricole said. 

He concluded that we now need to build on this momentum to harness the tremendous renewable energy and energy efficiency potential of Seychelles, in order to bring modern energy services to all.

Forrás: www.nation.sc