| |
 |
| |
| NUKU’ALOFA, TONGA (14th September 2018) — The Ground Breaking Ceremony today marks a contribution from the Government of Japan of 20 million USD for the first ever large scaled Wind farm Project in the Kingdom of Tonga. This is a milestone in the life of this project but also a tangible progress towards the Governments overall objective reducing reliance on costly imported diesel through substantial investments in renewable energy. |
| |
| As stated by Honourable Minister for Public Enterprise, Saia Piukala, “We mean business when we say 50% renewable energy by 2020". |
| |
| Petroleum dependency makes Tonga highly vulnerable to oil price changes and shocks, which in turn affects our ability to afford food, goods, electricity, and transport. More than 91% of our overall grid-connected electricity demand is supplied by generators fuelled by imported diesel. In addition, an estimated 13 million litres of diesel is consumed to generate this electricity at a cost that’s about 10% of our gross domestic product and about 15% of the total value of imports. Peak demand is expected to increase to 10.2 Megawatts by 2020. |
| |
| This project is a joint effort from the Government of Japan, Japan International Cooperation Agency, Government of Tonga and Tonga Power Limited. The Government of Japan has also contributed a 1MW Solar Farm in Vaini which are just some of the projects that the Government of Japan has contributed to the Kingdom of Tonga. |
| |
| The Guest of Honour for the Ground Breaking Event were their Majesties King Tupou VI and Her Majesty Queen Nanasipau’u. |
| |
| The expected completion date for the JICA Wind Generation System project is June 2019. |
| |
| Media Inquiries |
| Andrew Kautoke |
| Tel: 7720002 |
| E: akautoke@tongapower.to |
| |