Praise For Rural Electrification Projects
Rural electrification projects undertaken by the Government were highly commended by Professor Anirudh Singh during the Renewable Energy Workshop at University of Fiji, Saweni Campus, Lautoka, last week.
Professor Singh, who is UniFiji’s co-ordinator of Masters in Renewable Energy Management (MREM), said the “solar home system” introduced by the Government was most effective to people.
“Every family is being provided with electricity with minimum costs,” he said.
“This is essential because lighting is an important requirement for all families.”
Professor Singh said Government had been trying to accelerate the process as well. He added that the grid extension programme was highly desirable, but said it carried high costs with it.
Professor Singh said climate change was a serious issue that needed everyone’s involvement.
“The theme of this workshop is set by the Paris Agreement. This is the Climate Change Agreement that was reached at the UN’s COP21 Paris in November, 2015,” he said.
Professor Singh said that the two major ways of mitigating the effects of global warming was through substituting the use of fossil fuels with renewable energy and by taking energy efficiency measures.
Meanwhile, Acting Vice Chancellor of University of Fiji Professor Narendra Reddy said the Fiji’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) Implementation Roadmap cemented this commitment by guiding our progress towards realising our sustainable development goals.
“Fiji’s NDC is very specific to the energy sector and aims to reduce the Fijian energy sectors total carbon dioxide emissions by around 30 per cent by 2030,” he said.
He said Fiji’s energy sector had been reliant on imported fuels in the past, which led to high import bills.
“Renewable energy is considered to be one of the most effective tools that we have in the fight against climate change,” said Prof Reddy.
He said that the workshop was vital because it would provide everyone with the platform to share knowledge on the developments that are taking place in the renewable energy area. Around 50 students were part of the workshop yesterday.
Shayal Kumar, one of the participants, said that she was glad to be a part of the workshop and was hopeful that she gained a lot out of it.
Edited by Epineri Vula
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