Tongan renewable energy is all around us − the ocean, stupid! ^Featured

Auckland, New Zealand – Tongan Deputy Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni was one ecstatic diplomat who must have had an almost orgasmic experience at the Pacific Energy Conference in Auckland last week, June 07, 2016.
 
Money-bearing donors came to the rescue making pledges of more than $1 billion (That’s correct, with a capital “B”; $1,000,000,000 or $109 to the ninth power) to fund sustainable energy projects in nine Pacific Small Island States (SIDs). OMG! We “Tangata Pasifika” (incorrectly translated by many foreigners as “kanakas”) are now swimming in money rather than in the ocean. Renewable energy is certainly Green in color. Yes, very much green indeed.
 
Just in time, as we are about to sink to the bottom of the ocean because of Global Warming, or by its more politically-correct name Climate Change, they came to save.
 
And Mr. Sovaleni and his SID colleagues can smell the color of Green; they must have lit some up to get high on while celebrating their good fortunes. They are experts in holding out their hands for donations from bigger evil nations who are polluting the earth’s environment. Meanwhile, the answer to bolster their wind and solar power sources could be found at the nearest beachhead on any island.
 
ANSWER LIES IN THE EVER RENEWABLE OCEAN
 
Salivating for such evil amount of money – even divided by 9 is still $111 million for each island nation − can cloud one’s mind, but the money will run out at some point soon. Especially for Tonga, imported diesel fuel is difficult to replace, and the intermittency of wind and solar energy has no reliable life booster identified until now.   
 
Unless, of course, the money is used wisely, and not wasted on trial-and-error experiments, and sexy projects that fail to deliver electricity when customers want it (high demand). When the wind doesn’t blow, and the sun is not shining, current technology has not developed a chemical battery that could save wind and solar energy power to produce return-on-investment equity of more than 5% saving.
 
But an old technology from the 1890s known as “pump storage hydropower” could be the natural fit for Tonga and her SID neighbors. Since the ocean can be an in-exhaustible clean source of energy, why not pump it to a large reservoir inland at a higher elevation? Then release it like from a man-made water dam to spin hydroelectric turbines generating electricity when needed.
 
"Among all energy storage technologies," Vladimir Koritarov an energy systems engineer notes, "pumped storage hydropower is still the only one that is mature, reliable, proven, and commercially available to provide large utility-scale energy storage." He said in an interview at the Department of Energy National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois, USA.
 
CLEAN, RENEWABLE ENERGY VS. DIRTY DIESEL FUEL
 
The hunt for a clean renewable energy source to replace diesel fuel is now feasible for SIDs like Tonga. Larger countries pump water from natural rivers and lakes to power their pumped storage hydroelectric systems, but Pacific Islands are floating in the ocean. They will need to do research on how to deal with the corrosive nature of sea water, but what a small price to pay for a renewable clean energy source. Sea water is pumped to reservoirs inland, and then release to the ocean to generate electricity.
 
"We are seeing that there are other, more interesting ways of storing electricity coming up on the horizon, in particular battery storage through distributed systems," said Peter Bosshard the interim executive director for International Rivers, an environmental advocacy based in Berkeley, California.
 
Building reservoirs and large holding tanks can be more expensive than chemical batteries. But even Microsoft founder Bill Gates had confessed to have invested billions of dollars in new battery makers to store wind and solar power but to no avail. Mr. Gates has extended his investments on these battery makers for over 20 years without getting more than 5% saving of battery storage.
 
Pump storage hydropower technology came from the European Alps (Switzerland, Austria, and Italy) in the 1890s. It was used for greater flexibility in water management of water resources. In the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s it was adopted in electricity generation, ballooning to full use in Spain, Germany, and Naples and Sicily in Italy.
 
CHINA, USA, JAPAN LARGEST “PSH” BUILDERS
 
China, however, is the world’s largest utilizer of the pump storage hydroelectric technology today. Growing fastest than in any country in the world, according to Chi-Jen Yang, a researcher scientist at the Cernter of Global Change at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.
 
"A new pump hydro station comes online every several months," he says, adding that "there are 10 or 15 under construction right now, and each one is really huge, like one (1) gigawatt or bigger."
 
China's 22 gigawatts of installed pumped storage hydro capacity has gone ahead of the United States' 21 gigawatts. China will overtake Japan's 27 gigawatts in 2018 as world leader, according to Yang. The 3.6-gigawatt Fengning Pumped Storage Power Station under construction in Hebei Province will be the world's largest when it comes online around 2022.
 
TONGAN CHALLENGES NEED VISIONARY LEADERS
 
Mr. Sovaleni boasts that Tonga is now generating 10% renewable energy sources, slated to reach 50% in 2020, and 100% in 2035. But his claim is doubtful since Tonga has no other energy sources to supplement wind and solar power. What Tonga has plenty of is the ocean, which is rising in volume rather that depleting.
 
Other countries are able to bolster their 100% renewable clean energy only with strong revenues earned from oil or other natural resources such as hydropower. Tonga has a few lakes, but no rivers, and no other natural resources. Harnessing the power of the ocean is the next logical choice to bolster wind and solar power.
 
“It's harder to actually provide electricity to the outer islands. We've got more than 50 islands that we need to cover," the Deputy Prime Minister said in Auckland. I hope he doesn't think that all of these 50 islands’ energy problems can be solved with a “cookie-cutter” approach.
 
Perhaps the larger islands needed to be harnessed first, then solutions for the smaller islands can follow suit. Some islands in Tonga have natural lakes, but most are floating in the ocean.  

(Sione A. Mokofisi lives in Tonga, and he is an international syndicated columnist. He is Director of English, Journalism & Business Management at Moana Uni-Tech, Haveluloto, Tongatapu. He earns a MBA from the University of Phoenix-Arizona; BS from Brigham Young University-Hawaii; AA from Mesa College, Arizona. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).