- Seychelles is looking towards achieving 15 percent renewable penetration by 2030.
- Seychelles has received funding from an Indian government grant to support the programme.
Seychelles’ Public Utilities Corporation (PUC) and the Department of Energy are currently assessing prospective government buildings to install photovoltaic panels.
These are the latest steps Seychelles is taking towards achieving 15 percent renewable penetration by 2030 and the vision of hitting net-zero emissions by 2050.
The Principal Secretary for Energy and Climate Change, Tony Imaduwa, told SNA, “We are assessing whether the earmarked institutions’ roofs can sustain having the panels.”
Among the buildings being assessed are health centres, police stations and other government offices to see if their roofs can first hold the PV systems. The assessment is on energy consumption, whether the grid can integrate them, and whether there are plans to carry out renovation work on the buildings.
Seychelles has received funding from an Indian government grant to support a programme to install PV systems on government buildings. Additional funding has been added to next year’s budget to ensure the completion of the second phase.
The first phase of the installation of PV panels on certain government buildings is completed, and the Department of Energy has started work for the second phase.
The Barbarbarons emergency housing estate in the west of Mahe, the main island, and the National Assembly building at Ile du Port are some of the buildings included in the first phase.
Imaduwa added, “We started this programme some years back under the PV democratisation project. Through the ongoing project, more government buildings will be identified.”
Meanwhile, to complement this program, the Department is also running one for schools under the Solar School Project, partly funded by the Chinese government.
Currently, the largest PV panel is on the roof of the Central Bank building in Victoria.