Fossil fuel? No thanks! (Image: William L. Stefanov, NASA-JSC)

Coconuts and sunshine will soon provide all the electricity demands of the South Pacific islands of Tokelau.

Foua Toloa, Tokelau’s leader, announced this week that by the middle of next year solar energy will supply 93 per cent of Tokelau’s electricity – the rest will come from coconut oil. Motor vehicles and some cooking devices will still use fossil fuels, but renewables will power most of the nation’s technology.

Tokelau, which consists of three small Pacific atolls administered by New Zealand, is home to around 1500 people. Its highest point is 5 metres above sea level, making the territory vulnerable to rising waters caused, ultimately, by fossil fuel burning.


Apart from solar energy supplying a few houses and buildings, Tokelau relies on fossil fuels for its power. Each atoll uses around 200 litres of fuel per day, including kerosene, gasoline and natural gas, which must be transported from New Zealand.

By mid-2012, each island’s electricity grid will be powered by solar photovoltaic cells, with batteries to store excess electricity for the night. During periods of thick cloud cover or when electricity demand exceeds solar supply, a purpose-built generator that runs on coconut oil will supply power and simultaneously recharge the battery bank.

Small ask

According to Christopher Dey at the University of Sydney, Australia, around 200 square metres of solar cells will be needed on each atoll to meet Tokelau’s average energy demands. “It’s not that much,” he says.

A feasibility study conducted by Empower Consultants, based in Wellington, New Zealand, found that each atoll will need 20 to 30 litres of coconut oil per day – around 200 coconuts. Empower says this was sustainable for the coconut-rich tropical islands.

In 2007, Samsø – an island in Denmark twice the size of Manhattan – became the first island in the world to be powered only by renewable power, much of it supplied by wind turbines, which produce over 100 million kilowatt-hours per year.

El Hierro, the smallest of Spain’s Canary Islands and home to 11,000 people, also hopes to be powered solely by renewable energy by the end of the year.

“These progressive examples and demonstrations all prove that it is possible to live only through renewables,” says Dey. “It’s not so freaky or way out.”