Papua New Guinea New Energy Photovoltaic Power Generation Glass Crystalline Silicon

Papua New Guinea's first plug-in electric vehicles (EVs) – two cargo vans and a passenger bus – have appeared on the streets of Port Moresby. Ruby Gamoga reports. Improved access to finance could the rapid development of solar power, according to Jon Pittar, Managing Director of solar provider, Solar Solutions PNG.

Electricity in PNG is still very expensive and the cost of solar power continues to fall each year. Now we're seeing similar price drops for batteries, and I think that will be the next stage for solar projects, as many of them will begin to include energy storage.

Specifically for Papua New Guinea, country factsheet has been elaborated, including the information on solar resource and PV power potential country statistics, seasonal electricity generation variations, LCOE estimates and cross-correlation with the relevant socio-economic indicators.

At the utility scale, PNG has a few solar farms under development, with largely unchanged progress as most of the obstacles here are regulatory more than economic. PNG Power Ltd and the Department of Energy are supportive of these projects, but there are a lot of moving parts and all parties have worked hard to keep them on track.

'It's clear that solar is going to reshape the PNG economy, much like mobile phones did 15 years ago.' We have been collaborating with the Climate Change and Development Authority (CCDA), which is a part of the Environment Ministry.

For domestic emissions, electricity in PNG is largely zero-emission hydropower but you also have some highly polluting diesel generators contributing to energy production in Port Moresby and most of the provincial capitals (C-Centres).