By: Olkeriil Eoghan Ngirudelsang
KOROR, Palau – President Surangel Whipps said last week the government is struggling to manage the influx of solar energy and is asking neighboring countries to pause new solar projects.
“One of the first meetings we had was meeting the Japanese, Taiwanese, and the Australians asking them to please stop any other new solar projects for now because if we add new solar projects to the grid now, we cannot handle it,” Whipps said at a news conference.
The president said the island nation is facing challenges integrating renewable energy into its power grid without sufficient battery storage. Australia has pledged $5 million to help Palau build battery capacity, he said.
“There is no question that the idea (renewable energy) is great but there is only so much energy that we can absorb through solar into the system without having 100% batteries,” Whipps said.
Despite earlier projections of increasing energy demand, Palau’s electricity consumption has actually declined, the president said. The island is now producing more solar energy than it can consume, leading to wasted power.
Whipps announced at the Our Oceans conference an ambitious goal of achieving 100% renewable energy by 2032. This is a more aggressive timeline than the 45% renewable energy goal set by former President Tommy Remengesau Jr. for 2025.
To accelerate Palau’s transition to renewable energy, Whipps has reached out to Tesla CEO Elon Musk in 2023, proposing a partnership to power all electric vehicle charging stations with solar energy. The letter has sparked a public debate, with some supporting the plan as a strategic move and others questioning its feasibility and relevance to ordinary Palauans’ concerns about high electricity costs.