TOTAL ENERGIE
TRANSENERGIE
LIFE
CRES
EUROPEAN COMMISSION

 PV-INGRID ASSOCIATION

 STATE OF ART ON RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES USING AND APPLICATION IN ISLAND TERRITORIES

INTRODUCTION

The growth of the population during the last decade has created a debate about the possibility of maintaining the development and the quantity of natural resources available in our planet. The problems caused by the increase in the consumption are basically related to the settlement of cities and tourist areas, which have produced other consequences involving pollution, lack of natural resources, a bigger density of population and many more concerns. The degradation of nature has been caused by the systematic exploitation of the natural resources and the use of non-renewable sources such as petroleum and coal. That type of energy has clearly contributed to degrade the planet plus originating energy dependence. Moreover, these conventional sources are finite, as explained in the following table:
 

	DURATION OF KNOWN RESERVES	DURATION OF TOTAL (KNOW AND UNKNOWN) RESERVES
OIL	49 Years	72 Years
NATURAL GAS	68 Years	134 Years
COAL	262 Years	617 Years
URANIUM	60 Years	230 Years

A closer look at this table reveals that actual consumption habits will deplete all reserves in the near future. The main result will be an increase of energy cost, thus fast impoverishment and a higher pressure on the environment.
As a fact, all these considerations are even greater when applied to island regions, due to their fragile ecosystems and lack of conventional energy sources. Their specific economy usually focussed on particular sectors (like agriculture or tourism) increase their vulnerability to the consequences of energy consumption related to the use of fossil fuels. The development of renewable energy sources using and desalination systems are the only way to guarantee a sustainable future for insular systems.


ISLAND SPECIFIC NEEDS

WATER

Several European and Mediterranean Countries have water problems, but it gets worse when referring to southern islands and municipalities, mainly devoted to tourism. The problem there is worst, because tourism demands an endless supply and, because of the leisure facilities, such as swimming pools, golf courses and greens, even when there is enough water, there are high losses in mains supply, which is often polluted or salted.
For all these reasons, there is a growing necessity for the utilisation of desalination plants, due to the increase of the consumption and the lack of water that central and southern countries suffer originated not only by the inhabitants but by tourists; the prospects for the use of product water as an energy storage system along with the rising introduction of renewable energies make it easier to implement systems to cover the urgent necessity of fresh water. Moreover, the energy for water supply in Mediterranean countries is very expensive, and most of the time it depends on fossil fuels, increasing pollution and dependence from the exterior. Pollution should be avoided, as tourism may escape to other unexplored targets once the environment is harmed.
Nowadays, PV systems are quite expensive in larger plants compared to conventional energy sources and other renewable, like wind energy. Nevertheless, it perfectly fits small applications of no more than 2 kW, making it the adequate power supply for direct distillation systems in small and local applications.

On the other hand, wind energy is a high competitive form of producing energy, even in islands with a low average wind speed. The usage of wind turbines to power medium sized desalination plants is perfect, and several pilot plants are being developed under the framework of some European programs, as well as hybrid systems using PV panels and wind generators to produce fresh water.
Finally, these desalination plants could also be connected to the grid, which is the easiest approach. Anyway, in order to avoid pollution, a parallel solution consisting in the installation of RES generation systems connected directly to the grid should be applied.

DESALINATION PLANTS

Because of the lack of water, islands should take advantage of their natural resources. With this resolution, together with the installation of desalination plants, the quantity of water available will be increased and the pollution caused by fossil fuels reduced. Desalination is the separation of dissolved impurities from water. Part of that water is recovered in a product stream in a purer form.
Desalination processes can be divided into two large groups: Distillation and membrane systems. Distillation is used almost exclusively for seawater desalination. Membrane systems include Electro dialysis (brackish water) and reverse osmosis (both brackish and sea water)
As the lack of water and its impurity is a problem that is affecting people already, desalination systems will be of significant importance in the near future. Reverse Osmosis (RO) in particular will be of special interest on islands and coastal sites, because of the availability of sea water and the avoidance of costs that a well and a pumping system will take, in case that there is a brackish water available.


THE RES SOLUTION ON ISLANDS

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

The fear of a polluted environment is not exclusive of a specific sector of society. Many organisations and groups have expressed their concern on these matters, as well as their belief that renewable energies are the solution for a sustainable development.
Besides, the percentage of the Gross Domestic Product used for Primal Energy Supply, considering a fixed price of 20$ per barrel of crude, has been decreasing from 5% in 1970 to 3,8% in 1995; it is expected to follow this trend, reaching 3% in 2020. This reduction is mainly due to the change in the economy towards the service sector.
Two alternatives are suitable for islands to be applied: the first one is the installation of large Renewable Energy Plants to centralise the distribution and generation of energy, working together with the traditional stations already working. The other one will be the local and individual application in buildings and dwellings.
If a compromise is made with decision makers, involving all sectors, 100% of the energy demand could be covered with RES.
In the other hand, the rational use of energy is a complementary and necessary action in phase with users. Instead of using the traditional bulb lights, low consume ones (20% of the normal consumption) or halogen lamps will be used. It saves 0,5 ton of CO2 to be emitted to the atmosphere to change a 100 w. traditional light for a low consume. Photoelectric controls switch off unnecessary lights when not required, producing a saving between 10 and 80%.

MAIN FINDINGS

Around the world, a few islands already have taken the decision to become 100% RES community in a near future , Samsoe and Aero from Denmark, Gotland from Suede and others in the Caribbean region like the French island La Desirade. Some of them produce already more than 50% of their electricity from RES like Fiji and Pellworn (Germany).

Most of the southern islands are using solar water heaters on a very large scale (i.e. Barbados and Cyprus).

Islands with very big utilisation of RES for electricity production are mainly utilising hydropower and wind power. That is true European islands are in the North Atlantic Ocean but the Mediterranean sea and the Caribbean sea own also a few of overseas European island for PV applications.

The next chart indicates the level of RES penetration for electricity production in a few European islands:

ISLAND	COUNTRY	% of electricity from RES	Type of RES	Area (km²)	Population	Density
LA DESIRADE	F	100	W	70	1600	23
SAMSOE	D	75	W	114	4400	39
PELLWORN	G	66	W/PV	37	900	24
REUNION	F	56	H/B	2512	653000	260
FLORES	P	43	H/B	30	4300	142
SAO MIGUEL	P	38	G/H		126000	169
FAEROE	D	35	H/W	1400	48000	34
MARIE GALANTE	F	30	W	158	13500	85
CORSE	F	40	H/W	8721	250000	29
MIQUELON	F	30	W	216	600	3
RARUTU	F	20	W	243	2000	8
MADEIRA	P	17	H/W	765	248300	325
ASCENSION	UK	16	W	82	1100	13
GOTLAND	S	15	W	3140	58000	18
ILE DES PINS	F	15	W	141	1700	12
ST HELENA	UK	13	W	122	5600	46
AEROE	D	13	W	90	7600	84
SAO JORGE	P	10	W	246	10200	41
GUADELOUPE	F	12	B/H/G/W/PV	1500	400000	267
FUERTEN VENTURA	S	9	W	1660	41600	25
GRACIOSA	P	7	W	61	5200	85
CRETE	GR	6	W/PV	8260	540000	65
LA PALMA	S	6	W/H	708	81500	115
PORTO SANTO	P	6	W	42	5000	119
EL HIERRO	S	5	W	269	8400	31
GRAND CANARY	S	4	W	1560	714000	458
LANZAROTE	S	4	W	846	77200	91
SANTA MARIA	P	3	W	97	6000	62
CARACAO NL	NL	2	W	444	144000	324
TENERIFE	S	2	W/H	2034	666000	327
FAIAL	P	1	H	170	15000	88
TOTAL OR AVERAGE		23%		36597	4140700	113