5 September 2020, NIICE Commentary 5932
Dr. Chayanika Deka
The growing international aspiration among countries from both developed and developing world to invest on renewable energy has been unprecedented. World’s major powers including the US, China, European Union, India have become foremost contributors to the global energy nexus as reported by International Energy Agency. On account of diminishing reserve of fossil fuel and rising green house gas emission stirring the negative impact on climate, advocated profound potentialities for solar energy as cost effective, low carbon and climate resilient to feed the growing hunger for energy. It is worth mentioning that at present times, renewable energy sources fulfil electricity need across the world with a growth rate of 2.6 percent in 2015. Given this high requirement for solar technologies, a powerful platform “International Solar Alliance” (ISA) was launched in November 2015 during COP21, held in Paris which brought 121 solar resources rich countries situated between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
The idea behind this global podium is that all solar resource rich countries should effectively utilise enormous quantity of sunlight through collaboration and networking with multiple stakeholders such as bilateral and multilateral forums, industry, corporate, in establishing an affordable and universal solar energy eco-system. Both India and France undertook leading parts with the allocation of INR 400 million and EUR 300 million respectively for ISA’s initiation and having an easy and mutually beneficial access to solar energy along with the support of the World Bank that itself mobilised more than USD1000 billion investment towards this joint venture.
In this global initiative, African countries have taken a major role due to their ample energy richness borne out of better geographical and climatic atmosphere. Around 28 Countries have become signatory member of “International Solar Alliance” (ISA) with the hope that it would bridge their financial constraint, accelerating their momentum for promoting and developing solar energy applications. In this regard, Seychelles, an archipelagic nation located in the Indian Ocean consisting of 115 islands has shown innumerable interest in switching to renewable energy sources. It will be the first African country to install ‘Floating solar Photovoltaic’ (FPV). Moreover the government of Seychelles announced it’s planning to source 5 percent of its electrical demand from renewable energy by 2020 and 15 percent by 2030. Seychelles is now partnering with India in International Solar Alliance as the founding member and Renewable energy agreement was signed by the governments of both India and Republic of Seychelles. The article seeks to analyse how India and Seychelles could collaborate on achieving common purpose of expanding renewable energy by addressing common challenges in a secure, tangible and feasible process.
Seychelles’s Roadmap towards 100 percent Renewable Energy
Seychelles has been constantly working in its commitment en route for renewable energy as the country has vast renewable energy resources in the forms of wind and solar. This urge for renewable resources lies in the fact that this small island nation invests a large part of GDP on imported oil and other fossil fuel for electricity and transport consumption of almost 100,000 populations. Moreover, it is apparent that the country’s reliance on 85 MW diesel dominated electricity generation capacity resulted in twin challenges of volatile economic growth and increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, the dearth of natural oil pools and inadequate land space persuaded the government of Seychelles to look out for opportunities in renewable sector in meeting future energy consumption needs.
In line with this growing demand, Seychelles’ government approved a proposal in developing a 100 percent Renewable energy Roadmap for the country in April 2016. This proposal provided a major boost to government’s ambitious renewable energy targets i.e. generating 20 percent of energy needs from solar sources by 2020 and reducing green house gas emission by 29 percent in 2030, supporting country’s National Climate Change Strategy and Nationally Determined Contribution. In order to realise this ambition, the government is exploring various opportunities involving multiple stakeholders and national and international investment for boosting renewable energy infrastructures. In April 2018, the Seychelles Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change and Seychelles Energy Commission announced to install the first African utility scale FPV on a shallow body of salt water on the Providence Lagoon, located in island of Mahe. This project would be funded by private sector that would have an estimated capacity between 3.5-4 MW. The coming of Clinton Foundation, Trinity International LLP, Multi-consult Norge AS, the African Legal Support Facility, the Public Utility Cooperating in building this project to transform Seychelles into a major power presented a clear picture of how multiple actors performed a crucial part in collaborating with national government in supplementing cost effective solar power generation in accordance with the goals of sustainable development.
The suggestion to initiate the work began in the month of June 2019 as a group of pre-qualified bidders and joint endeavours across the World such as Building Energy South Africa Ltd, Cobra Instalaciones Y Servicios SA, General du Solaire and Total Eren, Green Yellow SAS, Voltas Ecobiotech Ltd, Seatee Solar ASA, Solar Philippines, Corex solar had been approached to submit technical and financial proposal. After a series of evaluation of their proposals, the final bidder would be appointed to fully construct and operationalise this innovative project.
The building of floating photovoltaic energy poses enormous potentialities not only for this small developing country but for entire continent. With this land mark project, Seychelles would be an exemplary country for other island nations where there is dearth of land space for solar development. It would trigger further floating solar projects in a marine environment for island nations.
The floating solar panel facility is expected to reduce nearly 3500 tons of carbon emission by providing green renewable energy in the line with a low-carbon future. Many analysts believe that more than 1 TW solar generation is possible in Africa if we deploy floating PV on 10 percent of the Continent’s water surfaces. This could leverage Africa’s leading stature in tackling global climate and energy crisis. In-addition, floating solar photovoltaic installations’ inherent features like “utilization of existing electricity transmission infrastructure at hydropower sites, close proximity to water reservoirs, enhanced energy yields on account of cooling effects of water and low existence of dust” demonstrated its feasibility over land based solar installations.
However, FPV continues to face certain challenges for successful deployment. The higher cost for installing PV system remains major hurdle in expanding solar development. However, due to lack of financial muscle developing economies like Seychelles find it difficult to harness solar power. This is where the role of India can be crucial. Institutional arrangements such as ISA which India currently heads can handhold the policy and financial infrastructure in Seychelles.
Lessons from India
The power mix of India including its thrust on renewable energy has many lessons for Seychelles to follow. India has a total 44 GW of hydropower plants that can integrate to FPV and the shining example of this is in Mudasarlova reservoir in Visakhapatnam where 2 MW FPV systems is installed by the local smart city corporation. Another 68 MW of total capacity will be planted in the near future. India has also experienced public-private partnership models in building these FPV infrastructures. Policy understanding behind such partnership models can be an example for Seychelles Mahe island FPV plant.
In addition, institutional framework of ISA is an opportunity for both India and Seychelles to collaborate and cooperate in financial and business matters such that investment in new renewable generation technologies can be encouraged. The participation of private bank like Yes bank in mobilising climate finance in India can be template for corporations established in Seychelles.
Conclusion
Seychelles is an example for its conservation policies among the island nations who are at peril of dangerous climate change effects. The country has a limited landmass covered with water bodies which explains its thrust towards FPV plants. The country has approved 100 percent renewable energy target for its power generation and mandated 29 percent reduction of GHG emission by 2030. India has an ambition to be a global power which it could achieve only through cooperation with other nations. Seychelles being an island nation in the western Indian Ocean represents a territorial significance in India’s own schemes of things to yield its presence in the region. Therefore, India must do everything in its capacity to build a collaborative legacy with Seychelles. Given India’s own roadmap for renewable energy expansion, valuable lessons of public-private cooperation and financing can be transferred to Seychelles through knowledge sharing mechanism.
