A hydropower facility to transit power system in Solomon Islands from diesel generated to clean and renewable energy.
Universal grid-connected electricity supply is a major challenge across the 90 Solomon Island’s inhabited islands. The electrification rate is only around 45%, and many rural areas served by small PV panels, whilst the state-owned power utility SIEA is almost entirely dependent upon diesel generators for supply to the capital. The Solomon Islands seeks to greatly increase access to reliable electricity supply, doubling the number of households supplied by SIEA by 2021, whilst also increasing the use of renewable energy to 50% by 2020.
The Tina River Hydropower Development Project (TRHDP) will respond to these goals with a 15MW installation providing 65% of electricity demand for the capital Honiara by the online date of 2022. It will lower the cost of electricity supply, and diversify generation capacity towards clean, renewable sources. TRHDP will provide the Solomon Islands with reservoir capacity, giving flexibility to the power system to enable higher penetration of PV power without the need for large and expensive energy storage or diesel generators. It can provide a replicable model for other Pacific SIDS to use hydropower to balance variable solar power.
The Green Climate Fund will support the development by providing a USD 70 million loan over 40 years to finance a portion of the debt of the project company for the hydropower plant development. It will also provide a grant of USD 16 million to co-finance the construction of an access road to the site.
The project has an estimated lifespan of 50 years.
