Tonga Power stated the funding was a milestone in efforts by the Tonga government toward achieving 50% renewable energy generation by 2020.

It is estimated that TREP will cost around US$53.2 million. The project will help Tonga Power finance investments in solar farms, wind farms and battery storage systems on Tongatapu and in seven outer islands ‘Eua, Vava'u, Niuafo'ou, Kotu, Mo’unga'one, 'O'ua, and Tungua.

These investments will compliment ongoing efforts by Tonga Power to promote private sector participation in the energy sector through Independent Power Producer (IPP) agreements, lower generation and network management costs, and improve electricity efficiency.

TREP will be financed entirely through grant funds from the GCF (US$29.9 million), ADB (US$12.2 million), Government of Australia (US$2.5 million) and the Government of Tonga (US$8.6 million, which includes $3 million from Tonga Power).

In addition, TREP will provide the Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) requirements for Tongatapu with total capacity upto 10.1 MW / 19.9 MWh. These large scale BESS will provide power and grid support to not only Tonga Police’s existing generation and distribution system.

It will also support upcoming renewable energy projects and allow for the system to take in additional 4MW Solar and 3.8MW Wind Generation projects.

The impact of TREP will be a transformational shift away and it would lead towards 14,141 tonnes of reduced CO2 emissions per year.

Under Tonga’s programmatic approach, the GCF grant would account for about 32% of the estimated total investment for Tonga to reach its national energy target.

Diesel reliance

TERM was launched in 2009 to help Tonga address its heavy reliance on diesel fuel imports, which has had negative social, environmental and economic impacts, against the backdrop of increasing electricity consumption.

TERM will help Tonga transition from imported diesel fuel to environmentally friendly and renewable sources of energy such as solar, wind and potentially biomass to help meet the country’s energy requirements, with electricity consumption forecast to reach 66 Gigawatt hours (GWh) by 2020 and 107 GWh by 2030.