Vanuatu Wind Resource Monitoring

There is very limited data on wind energy potential in Vanuatu. A Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat project monitored wind speeds at a site on Efate in the mid-1990s, finding average speeds of 5.0 m/s in 1995 and 4.2 m/s in 1996, well below the 6 m/s generally considered to be necessary for economic electricity production. However, only 63% of data was recovered in 1996, so these results should be treated with caution. The Department of Energy, Mines & Minerals, with the support of the Pacific Island Greenhouse Gas Abatement and Renewable Energy Project (PIGGAREP) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), has installed wind monitoring towers in each of Vanuatu’s six provinces. The installations began operating in March 2012 and data collection is expected to be completed by the end of 2014. The project’s objective is to produce a wind atlas for Vanuatu and identify favorable sites for turbines.

The Department of Energy, Mines & Minerals, with the support of the Pacific Island Greenhouse Gas Abatement and Renewable Energy Project (PIGGAREP) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), has installed wind monitoring towers in each of Vanuatu’s six provinces. The installations began operating in March 2012 and data collection is expected to be completed by the end of 2014. The project’s objective is to produce a wind atlas for Vanuatu and identify favorable sites for turbines.

Source: IRENA Lighthouse Country Report.