Low cost energy and Samoa

Dear Editor

In November 2015 a meeting was held in Fiji between the various island states to discuss Geothermal energy in Samoa along with other forms of renewable energy.  Almost every Government department was represented including the EPC, “LTA”, MNRE, SROS and The Ministry of Finance.  

It was concluded that the area in Savai’i could well provide a large amount of geothermal energy to generate electricity.  

IRENA, the international renewable energy agency along with the MNRE (Samoa) were involved and the meeting was chaired by the Minister of Finance (Now Prime Minister).  

With the ongoing cost increases in power and diesel fuel, it would be interesting for Government to inform the Public as to what progress has been made in unburdening the populace with the cost of energy.  

This may sound a bit naive but surely if energy costs could be lowered, the business sector could actually lower the cost of goods.  

Further, with 24/7 power at almost zero cost, it would become feasible to bring in electric vehicles as they would be cheap to charge.  Our fuel imports, see EPC, could be reduced and the resultant reduction in pollution would be apparent.   However, I am sure that someone in Government would see this low cost energy source as a cash cow and the price of energy would NOT be reduced.

But who cares.

Charlie Mansfield

Samoa Observer

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