ST HELENA WINS GLOBAL ‘GREENING THE ISLANDS’ AWARD FOR ENERGY

A bid for the ‘Greening the Islands’ award by the St Helena Government (SHG), Connect Saint Helena Ltd and Enterprise St Helena (ESH), recognising the work to create a 100% renewable energy system, has been commended by the ‘Greening the Islands’ network, an organisation linking islands across the globe to share experience and to establish the world’s islands as leading innovators in the drive for sustainable development.

St Helena was one of three winners and was unanimously supported by an expert international jury of technicians and policy makers and voting by an online community of participants who joined the conference via Greeningtheislands.net

St Helena won the award in the ‘Energy’ category with the project entitled ‘100% Renewable St Helena’. St Helena is working towards becoming 100% self-sufficient through renewable energy by April 2022. This will be achieved through a mixed model of renewable energy production and storage and a targeted strategy to reduce demand through greener and more efficient products and practices.

St Helena’s strategy for 100% renewable energy will make the Island a leader among UK Overseas Territories. Using a combination of solar, wind and storage, St Helena intends to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, high import costs and volatile market prices. The renewable energy project shall achieve a reduction in the importation of diesel, and aligns with the Sustainable Economic Development Plan goals to ‘improve infrastructure’ and ‘reduce imports’.

Head of the Jury for the ‘Greening the Islands’ Award, Honorary Director of the Directorate General for the Environment in the European Commission, George Kremlis, said:

“This is a great project unanimously supported by the members of the review panel. We are looking forward to the full realisation of this ambitious project, and hopefully can visit St Helena to see the end result.”

CEO of Connect Saint Helena, Barry Hubbard, said:

“We owe a great deal of thanks to Trevor Graham who did the lion’s share of the work in pulling the submission together.  The submission describes our energy strategy, where we started, how we complemented the early wind technology with solar and how we are moving forward to energy self-sufficiency.  Many will be aware that following a tender process we have identified PASH as the preferred bidder to move our renewables forward at a time when capital funds are scarce.  We are currently negotiating a Power Purchase Agreement which once signed will transform the words in our submission to the reality of large scale renewable energy on St Helena.”

Director of Environment & Natural Resources, Derek Henry, added:

“This is a fantastic award for the Island. It demonstrates our commitment to green technology and I am pleased that St Helena has been recognised for its efforts to develop sustainably.”

Connect Saint Helena Ltd and SHG submitted a proposal earlier this month for the award with support from Enterprise St Helena and Trevor Graham, former Director of ENRD.

The award for the ‘Mobility’ category was won by Helgoland in the Friesian Islands for its work with electric sea transport, and the ‘Water’ award was won by Chumbe Island, a small island off the coast of Zanzibar.

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SHG/Connect Saint Helena/ESH

24 May 2018

St Helena Government Communications Hub

Telephone: 22470
Email: kimberley.peters@sainthelena.gov.sh