Biofuel study for Remote Electrification

The use of biofuels is increasing in popularity through the rising world market prices for fossil fuel. Especially on outer islands, the use of coconut oil can be a viable alternative through the high transport cost to get copra off the island and to get fuel to the island. This notion has lead to SOPAC activity in the region, in partnerships with UNDP and with the French Transénergie.

Man with coconut kart, Kiribati

Remote Electrification Business Model for Marshalls

The Marshall Islands were visited during October 2006 by a team which consisted of business development expert Mr. Evers from UNDP Suva and Mr. Cloin, energy adviser from SOPAC. The mission was funded by UNDP with in-kind contribution from SOPAC. Subject of investigation was the feasibility of setting up a small coconut oil mill for fuel on the island of Ebon, which is 200 miles south of the capital Majuro.

The mission was organised locally through the Marshall Islands Energy Office by Ms. Myazoe and was joined by Hon. Silk, minister for Resources and Development Mr. Hacker, Economic Planning Unit and Mr. Schutz as a representative from the Marshalls Energy Company (MEC).

A small number families and shops in the outer islands of the Marshalls are electrified nowadays with small petrol/diesel generators and a larger number of individual households with PV Solar Home Systems. Even though most users of PV systems are quite happy with the light and power for radio /TV provided, they would rather have access to more power. In this light, it was thought, communities can have access to more power, using a gen-set, for which they make their own local fuel.

The mission held a series of community meetings, to gauge the interest of the local community to engage in coconut oil milling using a small copra press. It appeared that the local community is very interested in the local value adding of copra on the islands. The cost of the oil would be around a factor of two lower than the current price of diesel on the outer islands.

The greatest challenge was found to be the small volumes of oil that are needed on the island to make it viable to write off the mill and pay for its maintenance. In addition, even if the price of coconut oil is much lower than diesel, the effective cost of around US$3 per gallon, or US$ 0.80 per litre makes for cost of energy around US$ 0.4 -0.5 per kWh.

At this price, it is only the very high income households would be able to afford this energy. It will be further investigated how a community based Rural Energy Service Company (RESCO) can find a sustainable economic solution to this challenge.

The draft pre-feasibility study of a RESCO operation on Ebon will be circulated for comments before the end of 2006 and might form the basis for a pilot project, making the energy supply on the outer islands of the Marshalls cleaner and more independent.

Hybrid Solar PV – Biofuel System in Kiribati

Kiribati was also visited during October on a related study, funded by the French Pacific Fund and implemented by Transénergie. Mr. Sauvage, hybrid system expert and SOPAC energy adviser Mr. Cloin visited the outer island of Abemama to investigate the viability of building a hybrid system using both solar and biomass energy. The project will study a site in Kiribati (this mission) and a site in Fiji, in collaboration with the Fiji Department of Energy, early 2007.

Most outer islands in Kiribati are, just like in the Marshall Islands, electrified by a combination of petrol/diesel generators and Solar PV. On the island of Abemama, 150 households, or 25%, use a solar PV system that is owned and maintained by the Solar Electric Company (SEC) based in Tarawa. The experiences with these systems are very positive, for powering lights and radio. The telephone company, KCMC uses a large array of solar PV panels to provide a telephone and internet connection to the island.

For larger systems, such as some of the boarding schools and offices, mostly small diesel generators are used. They run only 4 – 6 hours per day and more often than not, are only partly loaded. This makes for very inefficient power generation and thus high cost to the user.

The study focused on how this efficiency could be improved by creating a hybrid power system that combines the forces of both solar PV and the diesel generator. As an additional “renewable energy” component, the study also looked into replacement of diesel with coconut oil so that the combination would become 100% renewable. Another very important part of a hybrid system is storage, which could be a flywheel or a battery. This enables storage of electricity when there is over-production and allows electricity to be provided during times that both the sun and the gen-set do not generate electricity.

After visiting most parts of the island, the power system at the Chevalier boarding school was chosen as the subject of study. It was investigated whether current and future electricity generation could be provided by partly solar PV and partly a gen-set running on coconut oil. Most technical problems of engines running on coconut oil are caused in part by the fact that engines do not run at full load. Because a hybrid system contains a storage component, the engine can be run at close to full load when it is operated, increasing its efficiency and decreasing the rate of deposits on engine components. The average of 5 sun-hours in the outer islands of Kiribati will make for the balance of electricity by a solar array.

The preliminary findings of the study show that this setup can be favourable as compared to the current stand-alone diesel generator, provided the initial investment is covered by a donor. Nevertheless, one of the challenges found is the relatively high beach price (AU$ 0.6 per kg) of copra on the outer islands of Kiribati. Given that, it would cost about US$ 1 to produce a litre of coconut oil on the outer island. Because the fossil fuel prices are also subsidised (US$ 0.89 per litre) on the outer islands, the cost ends up to be lower for diesel than locally produced coconut oil.

There might be a chance that copra subsidies are ‘waived’ for the purpose of producing biofuels as it decreases the transport cost of copra from the outer islands to Tarawa, taking the net value of coconut oil in Tarawa as a point of reference. In addition, the study will take various price levels of fuels into account and investigate which could provide a sustainable model for Abemama.

Rural Electrification in Outer Islands using Biofuels in the Pacific

The opportunities to utilise locally produced coconut oil on the outer islands for remote electrification are present, but careful investigation of local economic and supply constraints need to be taken into account. Without waiting for the time that the oil price has gone higher than US$ 100 per barrel to make it viable, even with the small volumes required and the subsidised prices, pilot projects to gain experience with remote electrification with locally produced fuels are justified to make the island communities more independent in the long run.