Solar Power in the Islands

[Ianab]

Leaving Rarotonga at the weekend we could see their new Solar power setup on some spare ground at the airport.



Before now all the generation was diesel, and so power is expensive, about 80c kw/h.

Most houses have solar hot water, with manual electric boost, which works pretty well.

Also a heap of new solar power street lights going in around town. Like giant Solar LED Garden lights  :D

[r.man]

80 cents would cause conservation, people complain about their bill but they won't conserve. A friend of mine is a good example, she complains about the bill but turns on lights and then leaves the room. Her husband sometimes follows her around turning things off. They are never too happy with me when I say that electricity should be about 5 times the price it is now.

[Ianab]

Another thing I noticed.

Most places have NO air-con OR heating. Sure cuts the energy consumption. The Island just doesn't get that hot, or cold, that it's needed.  When we arrived they were having some "cold" weather, and temps were getting down to maybe 17C at night. The locals start putting on beanie hats, puffer jackets and track pant at around 19C.

The housekeeper for the place we rented knocked on the door to make sure we weren't too cold, because she had only left one blanket on the bed. We politely told her we were fine, we had actually taken the extra blanket off. And in fact the morning we left home to drive to the airport we had to melt Ice off the car, and we hadn't seen temps over 17C for the last 4 months  :D

Cooking is mostly with LPG, with bottles either connected to the house or the Grill on the deck. Most mornings we got up and made bacon/egg sammies out on the deck.