Réunion aims for carbon neutrality

By Ed Harris Reuters
Published: August 14, 2008

SAINT-DENIS, Réunion: Ringed by volcanic rock, sandy beaches and swells of the Indian Ocean, Réunion, an overseas department of France, is hardly a major polluter.
But hit by rising fuel costs and worried about the impact of global warming, particularly on its delicate flora and fauna, the island has set itself the ambitious goal of eliminating all its greenhouse gas emissions.
By 2025, Réunion wants to use renewable energy sources to produce 100 percent of its electricity, and to power all of its transportation by 2050.
"We have water, sunshine, we even have an active volcano," Paul Verges, president of Réunion's regional council, said after the Group of 8 agreed a 50 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.
"We have more energy than we need for our development."

About 36 percent of Réunion's electricity already comes from renewable energy sources, mostly hydro-energy and bagasse, a sugar cane fiber. But it wants to increase that figure by expanding its existing sources, cutting inefficiencies and exploring new technologies.
"What's possible in Réunion should also be possible in France, and should also be possible for the planet," said the French overseas territories minister, Yves Jégo.
Réunion is expanding its photovoltaic, hydro and wind energy projects to produce as much as 750 megawatts, 120 megawatts and 60 megawatts, respectively, said Jules Dieudonné, who heads a group focused on increasing the use of renewable energy.
About €115 million, or $180 million, of public money is scheduled to be spent from 2007 to 2017 to accomplish the goals, while incentives offered to private energy companies to produce more electricity from renewable sources than from fossil fuels, Dieudonné said.
Serge Borchiellini, the Réunion representative for Aerowatt, a renewable energy company said wind energy is "at about 15 megawatts, 16 megawatts."
"So there are other projects which are feasible," he said.
Biomass from sugar cane fiber and waste will also be part of Réunion's power future. Scientists, meanwhile, are testing the potential of hydrogen, geothermal energy from La Piton de la Fournaise, one of the world's most active volcanoes, and even ocean energy.
The temperature difference between sea water at the surface and at a depth of 1,000 meters, or 3,200 feet, is about 22 degrees Celsius (71 degrees Fahrenheit), Dieudonné said.
"This difference in temperature can allow us to make electric energy," he said, also citing possible kinetic energy from the ocean swell.
But as in other places around the world, the island has rapidly growing energy demands that threaten to delay the targets.
Living mostly along the coastline, Réunion's population is set to grow more than 20 percent to more than one million people by 2030 from about 800,000 now.
Réunion's average energy consumption per person is growing at 5 percent per year, according to official figures.
"The big problem in Reunion is the summer heat - everybody wants air conditioning," said Pierre-Yves Ezavin an official at Réunion's regional energy agency. He added that air conditioning accounted for about 80 percent of office electricity bills.
Réunion's traditional homes made good use of wood and plenty of windows, but low-cost housing of recent years was built with concrete using cheaper methods that trap the heat inside. "We have to take care of construction," Ezavin said.
His agency is running a public information campaign to encourage the use of green technologies like better construction methods and materials, solar water heaters - already a common sight - and bicycles. But attitudes are slow to change.
"We've heard about it," Jean-François Sery, a taxi driver, said about renewable energy. "I don't know what to think.
"It hasn't yet entered people's thinking," he said, adjusting his air conditioning while he waited in a traffic jam that snaked along the coastal road.
Accounting for 70 percent to 75 percent of Réunion's energy use, transport is the main issue for reducing its greenhouse gases.
And seeking to counter the extra 30,000 cars - about 10 percent of existing traffic - that appear on Réunion's congested roads every year, the island is set to complete the first 34-kilometer, or 21-mile, phase of an electrically powered tram-train by 2013 at a cost of €1.4 billion, Dieudonné said.
At the same time, though, Réunion is building a major road in the west in an effort to ease congestion. And with tourism a major source of jobs and income, airplanes are not part of Réunion's energy targets.
"Our ambition is not to invent a new airplane," Dieudonné said. "Our ambition is to do everything we can do in Reunion to become independent of fossil fuels."