SPC opens renewable energy centre in Tonga Featured
26 April, 2017. Increased access in the region to modern, affordable and reliable energy is the aim of a Pacific Community office launched in Tonga.
The Pacific Centre of Excellence for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency was opened in Nuku'alofa today and will eventually house ten staff.
The CEO for Tonga's Energy Ministry, Paula Ma'u said the office will provide training and research opportunities for the sector.
Mr Ma'u said it was a recognition of his country's work around sustainable energy.
"It started from 2010 when we had our TERM or the Tonga Energy Road Map, the first Road Map I believe in the Pacific and from there SPC especially and also other CROP, (Council of Regional Organisations in the Pacific), agencies in the Pacific recognised Tonga's efforts to move into renewable energy. I think this is one of the outcomes of it, this centre."
The opening of PCREE coincides with the regional energy and transport ministers meeting currently being held in the country.
-RNZI
2 comments
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Malo fau and many thanks 'Aisea for your reflective remark on the matter of energy, especially your spot-on philosophical critique of the intellectual and practical fusion and confusion between renewable energy, on the one hand, and renewable human use of energy, on the other.
I argue that the so-called law of conservation of energy from the point of view of both science and physics was long well-thought-out in philosophical ways in old Tongan thinking and practice in the broader context of ancient Tongan ako (education).
Herein, reality, that is, ta-va (time-space), on the abstract level, and fuo-uho (form-content), on the concrete level, is considered as me'a (matter) which is, in turn, regarded as ivi (energy), organised in terms of kula (red) and 'uli (black), as in mata kula/ava kula (red matter or red eyes/red holes) and/or mata 'uli/ava 'uli (black matter or black eyes/black holes).
The constant movement of ivi (energy) in reality by means of kula (red) and 'uli (black), as in peau/ngalu (waves) and matangi (winds) as both mata 'uli/ava 'uli (black eyes/black holes) and afi (fire) and pomu (bombs) as both mata kula/ava kula (red eyes/red holes).
Such constant motion of ivi (energy) in reality is reflected in the infinite manifestations of ta-va (time-space), in abstract ways, and eternal expressions of fuo-uho (form-content), in concrete terms, as in such variations as trees, knowledge and kinship amongst an infinite others.
With both depth and breadth, this is again clearly reflected in both ta-va(time-space), on the one hand, fuo-uho (form-content, on the other, as inseparable entities, where ta (time) is spatially-composed and va (space) temporally-marked, on the abstract level, and fuo (form) is substantially-formed and uho (content) as formally-defined, on the concrete level. -
Is it renewable energy as such or is it really renewable human use (or intellectual and technological means of use) of energy? Is it not physics specifically and science generally which tells us that energy cannot be created nor destroyed but can only transform (or be transformed by people through use) from one form to another, which quite simply means that there is really no renewable energy as problematically assumed. The problem is therefore not to do with energy as such but rather with the human use of energy.
Is not the search for modern, affordable and reliable energy actually a search for modern, affordable and reliable use (or intellectual and technological means of use) of energy? So, the fundamental problem is not the so-called modern, affordable and reliable energy but rather the modern, affordable and reliable use of energy by people.
We only have the current environmental crisis, where the accelerating, all-embracing global warming has seriously issued an increasing (yet largely not taken heed of, fallen to deaf ears) global warning, as in the case of global climate change, to readily bear true witness to this undeniable truth of reality and somewhat unwelcome fact of life.
The human use of energy as a natural entity given in reality lies in its very transformation into different forms of energy (and not the assumed creation or destruction of it) is in a dire state of crisis. This crisis state of energy is brought about by people-enforced asymmetrical and disharmonious relations of exchange between people and the environment.
A successful mediation of this state of crisis, where it is transformed to a condition of stasis, defined by a sense of symmetry and harmony is basically a work of both science and art. This state of symmetry and harmony is a state of beauty. Is not this state of beauty what is meant by sustainable energy or for that matter containable energy, where it is formally-marked, substantially-made through sustained symmetry and harmony, transforming the current energy crisis into a state of stasis?
(From a pessimist view, in respect of the current human-induced environmental crisis, we as merely a minute fraction of the whole inhabitants of the so-called Global Village, Spaceship, Earth, have undoubtedly declared war on Nature. By using energy in different forms as an ammunition, I am sure, Nature will as always in the long history of Earth fight back and it will fight back hard certainly but indiscriminately with great power, force and fury.)