帛琉將於兩年內轉向 100% 再生能源

帛琉將於兩年內轉向 100% 再生能源

轉載自: http://www.seinsights.asia/article/3290/3270/5617 編譯：梁元齡

正如大多數島國，太平洋上的小島帛琉自詡是個「返璞歸真的天堂」（pristine paradise），然而，
目前國內用電仍多仰賴柴油燃料。柴油不僅汙染環境，價格也十分昂貴，儘管最低薪的帛琉居民年薪
只有5000 美元（約新台幣 15 萬元），當地人平均每度電費還是比美國人高出一倍。

不過，帛琉已經著手進行一場新實驗：接下來一年半間，這座島國將轉向 100% 再生能源，政府甚至
不用花一毛錢，可能就要成為史上最快達成全國再生能源轉型的國家。而這項新計畫背後的合作夥伴，
現在也正協助其他小島國達成和帛琉相同的目標。

幫助帛琉能源轉型的重要推手，是科技。2017 年，帛琉總統在大型環境科技會議 EarthX 上與分析公
司 Gridmarket 的執行長相遇，雙方一拍即合，發現可以成為彼此的合作夥伴。著名的「珊迪」颶風
（Hurricane Sandy）在 2012 年侵襲美國時，超過 200 萬人無電可用、經濟損失達 400 億美元；
Gridmarket 以 PPP（public-private partnership）模式協助紐約市政府，預防下一場天災來臨的停
電問題。

幫每棟房子建檔，讓太陽能板廠商競標安裝

Gridmarket 的預測分析及製圖平台採用 AI 技術，逐棟剖析一座城市或地區內的建築，創立一項再生
能源的策略性計畫，同時打造數位商場，讓太陽能板製造商及其他提供解方的廠商能參與競標、解決
問題。（Gridmarket 採用 AI 技術，逐棟剖析一座城市或地區內的建築，再讓廠商競標安裝太陽能板、
提出能源解方。來源： Rob Bye on Unsplash ）

Gridmarket 執行長 Nick Davis 說：「基本上，我們每到一個地方，便大量消化所有我們系統可用的
數據。」他們利用各地的氣候及天氣狀況、能源成本、當地法規，以及當地實體特徵等資料點，替
每一棟建築建檔。

利用這些針對建築的逐棟分析，他們打造了帛琉的乾淨能源招標計畫，包括電池儲能、公家機關和學
校內的微電網，以及能夠供電給當地電網20 到 30 千瓩的大型系統。

Davis 說，通常單一件 30 千瓩的計畫，從一開始取得地權、磋商購電協議到獲得成果，可能就要花
3 到 4 年時間；然而，只要使用科技平台，就能大幅縮短耗時。GridMarket 已於 2018 年第二季著手
帛琉的計畫，今年底，第一批太陽能計畫便會整頓完畢。

會自學的 AI 平台，作業速度越來越快

「如此一來，從部署平台到完成太陽能板安裝，前後進程會縮到 3 至 6 個月，我們希望每次進行都
能越來越快。」Davis 表示：「我們的目標是能達到 24 小時運作，也就是只要建築所有人在平台登
記裝設太陽能板的需求，便自動誘發廠商，立即前往安裝。」

完成第一批安裝計畫後，帛琉永續能源將達 45%，達成聯合國的全球目標（Global Goals）；下一
階段，也就是在 2019 年，帛琉將能達 100% 永續能源。

（2019 年，帛琉將能達 100% 永續能源。來源：Kari Shea on Unsplash）

這個平台也會隨時間自學，找出更快制定策略性能源計畫的方法。Davis 說：「系統建立在人工智慧
的主幹上，因此確實大部分時間都在自學、釐清哪些新數據指出它的需求，然後在一個個節點、一棟
棟建築的建議方案中，一面成長、一面利用所有習得的知識。」此外，平台還會計算未來的能源需求，
包括科技降低需求的效率有多高，以及較低的能源費率如何促進使用。

轉型永續沒阻力，政府一毛錢也甭花

對於一國政府而言，大型能源轉型多半牽涉政治阻力，但帛琉政府卻極度渴望轉型。因為柴油是帛
琉 90% 的供電來源，政府又得花不少錢補貼用電，加上帛琉目前的企業用電每度要價 38 美分（約新
台幣 11 元），比一般民眾還貴，轉型再生能源不僅是替政府守住荷包，也能有利經濟成長。

除此之外，外部資金也將參與轉型進程，角色舉足輕重。隸屬美國共和黨、EarthX 創辦人兼慈善家
的 Trammell Crow 致力迎戰氣候變遷，他也已經拍板，由 EarthX 支付 GridMarket 的作業費用，同
時協助融資、購買設備及安裝服務，這些幫助都讓帛琉當局不必為了轉型自掏腰包。

結合科技、引領能源轉型，使帛琉的潔淨能源計畫更能迅速進行。正如 Davis 所言，要讓帛琉成為史
上能源轉型最快國，或許將不再只是紙上談兵。

This island nation is making the fastest-ever shift to renewables   July,17,2018 

轉載自: https://www.fastcompany.com/90203041/this-island-nation-is-making-the-fastest-ever-shift-to-renewables

The island nation of Palau plans to stop buying diesel and go 100% solar by the end of 2019–and offer a blueprint for other island nations to do the same.

 By Adele Peters

Like most islands, Palau, a Pacific island nation that bills itself as a pristine paradise, currently relies on diesel fuel to supply almost all of its electricity. It’s both polluting and expensive; residents pay more than twice as much per kilowatt-hour than an average American, even though someone earning minimum wage there only makes around $5,000 a year.

But Palau is in the middle of a new experiment: Over the next year and a half, the country will shift to 100% renewable energy, at no cost to the government, in what is likely to be the fastest national transition to renewable energy ever to occur. In a new program, the partners behind the work in Palau plan to now help other small island nations do the same thing.

Technology is helping drive Palau’s transition. When the country’s president happened to meet the CEO of Gridmarket–an analytics company that originally spun out of a public-private partnership in New York City after Hurricane Sandy–at a large environmental tech conference called EarthX in 2017, the two realized that they could work together. Gridmarket’s predictive analytics and mapping platform uses AI to analyze a city or region property-by-property, create a strategic plan for renewable energy, and then creates a digital marketplace for solar panel manufacturers and other solution providers to bid on the job.“We basically go into a place and gobble up all of the data that’s available using our system,” says Nick Davis, CEO of Gridmarket. Using data points such as climate and weather, energy costs, local laws, and the physical characteristics of each site, the company creates profiles for each property. In New York City, these are linked to addresses. In Palau, where conventional street addresses often don’t exist, the profiles can be linked to latitude and longitude. That building-by-building analysis was used to create Palau’s national RFP for clean energy, including battery storage, microgrids at government buildings and schools, and larger 20-30 megawatt systems that can feed into the local grid.

Typically, Davis says, a single 30-megawatt project might take three to four years to come to fruition, after first securing land rights and negotiating power purchase agreements, but using the tech platform shrinks that time. In Palau, where GridMarket started working in the second quarter of 2018, the first solar projects will be installed by the end of the year.
“In this case, from start to finish–deploying the platform to getting steel in the ground–it’s reducing it to really a 3-6 month process, which we hope to get quicker and quicker every time we do it,” he says. “Our goal is the 24-hour installation, eventually, where a property signs on and automatically triggers installers to immediately go and get it done.” In Palau, the first phase of installations will bring the country to 45% renewable energy, helping it meet its goals under the UN’s Global Goals. The next phase, bringing the country to 100% renewable energy, will happen in 2019.
The platform automatically teaches itself over time how to make a strategic energy plan more quickly. “It’s built on an AI backbone, so it really learns itself a lot of the time and figures out which new data points it needs, and uses all of those learnings as it builds node by node and property by property recommendations,” he says. The platform also calculates future energy needs, including both how efficient technology may reduce demand and how cheaper energy rates may increase usage.

For a national government, a major energy transition involves politics, but Palau’s government was eager to make the shift. Diesel energy supplies 90% of its electricity needs, and the government has to heavily subsidize the cost for its citizens. The change to renewables will both save its money and likely help the economy grow; businesses in Palau pay even more for electricity than consumers now, at 38 cents a kilowatt hour.
The work also has outside funding, a critical factor in making the shift happen. Trammell Crow, the founder of EarthX and a Republican philanthropist committed to fighting climate change, decided that EarthX should pay for GridMarket’s work, and will also help fund the purchase of the equipment and the installation (institutional funding and some donations from renewable energy companies will also cover some of the cost of implementation). The island nation won’t have to pay for the shift. The funding, in combination with the technology guiding the transition, is making the project move quickly. “We’re trying to have the quickest transition to renewable energy in the history of a country,” says Davis.

In Palau, a short list of renewable energy companies are now under consideration for the work, and installation will begin soon. Because they saw that the model can work, the Republic of Palau partnered with EarthX, Gridmarket, and the Global Island Partnership to form the “Island Resilience Partnership” to do the same work on other small island nations–among the countries most at risk from climate change and most in need of options for local, affordable energy, but that might otherwise have difficulty making the shift.