Fiji must embrace all perspectives of renewable energy to ensure a holistic development of all sectors.
And while Government has a commendable program of action for renewable energy and energy efficiency which made measurable progress, some of its actions and strategies were in danger of stagnating or stalling.
The remarks were made by University of the South Pacific School of Engineering and Physics lecturer Dr Anirudh Singh during a public seminar titled Managing Renewable Energy last Thursday at the University of Fiji Lautoka campus.
Dr Singh said Fiji needed to revive its bio-ethanol production initiative that was first publicised as far back as the year 2000.
“Fiji’s National Energy Plan is an important document that provides a blueprint for the development of renewable energy in the country,” he said.
“The draft review of the plan was completed in November 2013. There is an urgent need for this draft to be adopted by the Cabinet.
Dr Singh said in order to address the issue holistically, Fiji had to embrace all these various perspectives of renewable energy.
“These were renewable energy as a technology, as a means for sustainable development, a commodity and an agent for climate change mitigation,” he said.
“Fiji is a small developing remote Pacific Island nation that needs renewable energy to reduce its fossil fuel imports and to meet its climate change obligations.”
Because of this, Dr Singh said Fiji had to import the technology due to lack of local manufacturing infrastructure and scientific base.
He added there was also a need to train people in all aspects of renewable energy to address its barriers from all perspectives.
“Fiji needs to identify the barriers to progress, develop strategies for overcoming them and produce action plans and targets to implement the strategies, indicators to assess success, monitor and evaluate the progress,” Dr Singh said.
The seminar also inaugurated the start of UniFiji’s Masters in Renewable Energy program which held its first lectures last week.
More than 60 participants attended the seminar consisting of secondary and tertiary teachers and students, non- governmental organisation representatives, including industry and a special representation from a visiting group from Curtin University in Australia.
The seminar was part of a seminar series being conducted by the School of Science and Technology at the University of Fiji monthly.
