Australian Solar For Solomon Islands School

An Australian team is about to set off to install solar panels on a school in the Solomon Islands – the first school in the island nation to get PV.

Ha’apai Village is a small village on New Georgia Island, which is around 1,600 kilometres from Cairns and 2,200 kilometres from Brisbane. With an area of 2,037 km², New Georgia is the largest of the islands in Solomon Islands’ Western Province.

Ha’apai Village is situated the shores of Roviana Lagoon, and is surrounded by hundreds of hectares of virgin rainforest. Ha’apai School, which was recently refurbished, services five villages fringing the lagoon. The school was previously reliant on diesel generators for electricity supply.

Ha’apai “Solar By The Sea”

AIP Collective and Traditional Cultural Practices will be setting sail from Australia this month to install a stand-alone solar system at the school, the components of which are already on-site. The system (specifications not mentioned) was sponsored, designed, manufactured and shipped by Australian Radio Towers (ART).

“It will be the first school in the country to have solar, helping this remote community redirect school funding previously used on expensive generators, fuel and repairs to empower community education,” said AIP Collective early last month.

Local electricians will be trained to maintain the system.

This is a good news story and it’s always great to see Australian organisations pitching in overseas to bring renewable energy to remote and/or impoverished communities. Other examples we’ve mentioned here on SQ in the past include solar projects in Papua New Guinea and Cambodia, and of course SQ’s own association with Pollinate Energy.

All these initiatives demonstrate a little solar power can go a long way in improving lives.

Renewable Energy In The Solomon Islands

The Solomon Islands is still heavily dependent on expensive, polluting imported fossil fuels for electricity generation. This is bad news all round in terms of environmental, health and financial outcomes.

In July last year, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare launched the Solomon Islands Renewable Energy Roadmap, which provides the technical pathway and implementation framework to reach 100% renewable energy by 2030.

While Australia’s relationship with the Solomon Islands has been a little strained at times, we’ve certainly been willing to lend the country a helping hand – including on renewables. Australia is supporting the Solomon Islands’ first major renewables venture, which is the Tina River Hydropower project. It’s claimed the 15MW facility will increase the amount of renewable energy in the Honiara national grid by nearly 70 percent.

According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), renewables were a bit player in the Solomon Islands as recently as 2020, accounting for just 7% of electricity generation that year. In terms of solar power specifically, there’s very little going on in terms of projects according to this page on SolomonPower’s web site; but the authority does permit grid connected solar installations.

Here’s hoping projects such as the one for the school in Ha’apai will help inspire greater PV uptake in the Solomon Islands.