King receives Mata ‘o e La‘a Solar Facility for Tonga
Friday, May 29, 2015 - 21:23
The new Mata ‘o e La‘a Solar Facility that will provide 3% of Tongatapu's energy demand with green energy, was received for Tonga by HM King Tupou VI at Vaini in an official handover of the project this morning, 29 May.
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Congratulations to Tonga's
Congratulations to Tonga's Mata 'oe La'a Solar Facilities. Let's see how it compares with a couple of Solar Facilities in the region -
Tonga: 1.4 MW @ US$14.0 million, TOP$28 million according to the Matangi Tonga. (US$10,000/KW)
Samoa: .53 MW @ US$3 million (US$5,660/KW)
American Samoa: 2.4 MW @ US$10 million (US$4,166/KW)
From my non-engineering point of view, unless Tonga's Solar facility is gold-plated - Tonga may have paid too much. But then again, who cares when foreign grants was used. It will be interesting to know what Tonga's Maintenance Program is and the source of funds for this program. Not unlike all new technologies, maintaining what you have got will soon determine the success of any project.