Mauritius, Barbados tender for renewable energy and energy storage projects

The island nations of Mauritius and Barbados have both begun dabbling in the procurement of renewable energy storage.

Both countries, like other island regions around the world, rely on imported fossil fuels at high costs to meet their energy needs and have turned to energy storage combined with renewable energy, particularly solar PV, as a solution.

The Central Electricity Board (CEB) of Mauritius in East Africa last week issued a request for proposal (RfP) for the purchase of electricity from a hybrid renewable energy source, which would include solar PV plus battery storage.

CEB, a government-owned and operated power generation and distribution agency, has invited bids from potential bidders. The board plans to sign contracts to buy 90MW to 110MW of power.

CEB built its first grid-scale battery system in Mauritius in 2018, with funding from the multilateral Green Climate Fund (GCF), which has so far supported multi-billion dollar projects in 150 countries.

In Mauritius, the GCF has partly financed a battery system as part of measures to accelerate low-carbon energy development in the country, which meets 84% ​​of its primary energy needs from imported fossil fuels.

Imports of coal and fuel oil in particular have been driving up greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), but the country aims to meet 35% of its energy needs from renewables by 2025 and 60% by 2030.

Following the construction of two substations with 2MW of power output and 1.12MWh of capacity, a 14MW battery energy storage system (BESS) project, split across four CEB substations, was commissioned late last year through the GCF programme, also with support from the government and the United Nations Development Programme.

The 14MW project, divided into three 4MW sites and one 2MW site, requires a budget of approximately US$10 million (RMB 63.67 million) to complete.

CEB General Manager Jean Donat said at the launch of the project that Mauritius’ renewable energy optimization era is “well underway”, with more than 100 MW of solar PV connected to the grid by then.

The country’s government said in 2020 that it would commit funds to increase battery deployment to 40MW in its 2021-2022 budget announcement.

Importing fossil fuels harms island economies while polluting

Meanwhile, in the Caribbean island nation of Barbados, which is aiming to achieve 100% renewable energy and carbon neutrality by 2030 – as has the UN Development Programme’s assessment for Mauritius – the government describes renewables with storage as a powerful way to democratise energy.

In its quest to create a renewable energy and energy storage procurement framework, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is hosting a call to help develop it.

Released a few days ago, interested parties must respond by April 4, 2022. The project is titled “Supporting the Design of a Carbon Neutral Strategy in the Context of Barbados’ Energy Transition”.

It provides a seven-month consulting services contract with an estimated budget of US$200,000 (RMB 1.272 million).

The island, with 280,000 residents, imports fossil fuels for more than 90% of its energy needs, with a fuel import bill of $253 million (1.61 billion RMB) in 2018, according to the IDB summary. Only 5.5% of the electricity sold in the country comes from renewable sources, with about 3.5% coming from rooftop solar PV and 2% coming from its only 10MW utility-scale solar plant.

In addition to high fuel costs, Barbados is suffering from the destruction of its natural habitat, which, as an economy reliant on tourism, has knock-on effects.

(Original source: Energy Storage News Global Energy Storage Network, New Energy Network Comprehensive)