The island nations of Mauritius and Barbados have both started dabbling in the procurement of renewable energy storage.
Like the rest of the world's island regions, both countries rely on the costly import of fossil fuels to meet their energy needs, and combine energy storage with renewable energy, especially solar photovoltaics, as a solution.
The Mauritius Central Electricity Board (CEB) in East Africa last week issued a Request for Proposal (RfP) for electricity to be purchased in a hybrid renewable energy approach, which includes solar PV + battery storage.
CEB, a government-owned and operated power generation and distribution agency, has invited potential bidders to bid. The board plans to sign off on the purchase of 90 megawatts to 110 megawatts of electricity.
CEB built the first grid-scale battery system in Mauritius in 2018, with funding from the multilateral Green Climate Fund (GCF), which has so far supported multi-billion dollar projects in 150 countries.
In Mauritius, GCF partially financed battery systems as part of measures to accelerate the development of low-carbon energy in the country, where 84% of primary energy needs come from imported fossil fuels.
Imports of coal and fuel oil, in particular, have been driving the rise in greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), but the country aims to meet 35% of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2025 and 60% by 2030.
Following the construction of a set of two substations with a power output of 2MW and a capacity of 1.12MWh, a 14MW battery energy storage system (BESS) project, divided into four CEB substations, was commissioned through the GCF scheme late last year, which was also approved by the government, the United Nations UNDP support.
The 14MW project is divided into three 4MW sites and one 2MW site, and will require a budget of approximately US$10 million (63.67 million RMB) to complete.
At the launch of the project, CEB general manager Jean Donat said the era of renewable energy optimisation in Mauritius was "well underway", with more than 100 MW of solar PV already being integrated into the grid by then.
The government said in 2020 that it would commit funds to increase battery deployment to 40MW in its 2021-2022 budget announcement.
Imported fossil fuels harm island economies while polluting
Meanwhile, the Caribbean island nation of Barbados is targeting 100% renewable energy use and carbon neutrality by 2030 – as was assessed by the United Nations Development Programme for Mauritius – and the government describes renewables and energy storage as achieving A powerful way to democratize energy.
In its quest to create a renewable energy and energy storage procurement framework, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is hosting a call to help develop it.
Published a few days ago, all parties involved have until April 4, 2022 to respond. The project is titled "Supporting the Design of a Carbon Neutral Strategy in the Context of Barbados' Energy Transition".
It offers a seven-month consulting service contract with an estimated budget of $200,000 (1.272 million yuan).
The island, which has 280,000 inhabitants, imports fossil fuels for more than 90 percent of its energy needs, and its fuel import bill was US$253 million (1.61 billion yuan) in 2018, according to the IDB summary. Only 5.5% of the electricity sold in the country comes from renewable sources, with about 3.5% from rooftop solar PV and 2% from its only 10MW utility solar farm.
In addition to high fuel costs, Barbados' natural habitat destruction, as an economy that relies on tourism, can have a knock-on effect.
