The Tonga photovoltaic power plant (Photo by China Singyes Solar Technologies Holdings Limited)
BEIJING, Nov. 27 (Xinhua)--To the South Pacific island nation Tonga, October 19, 2017 was a very special day. On this day, King Tupou VI and Chinese Ambassador to Tonga Wang Baodong attended the completion ceremony of Tonga’s first new-energy project, a two-megawatt photovoltaic power plant. From that day onward, Tonga has become a country with green energy, bidding farewell to its previous era of merely relying on diesel to generate electricity.
At the ceremony, the King cut the ribbon and listened to the briefing on the backstage system of the power plant given by project staff members. In Tonga, any direct exchange with the king is deemed as the highest honour.
Shortage of electricity and oil was a problem for Tonga in old days. Tonga has a population of roughly 100,000 and relied mainly on diesel for electricity generation. The problem did not only hinder the development of local industries and the tourism industry, but also created noise and air pollutions.
In this backdrop, it was Zhuhai’s China Singyes Solar Technologies Holdings Co., Ltd., a high-tech business group specializing in solar energy and energy saving technologies, provided the photovoltaic solution for Tonga. Since the very beginning, this endeavour made two historical firsts: it is the first photovoltaic power plant built by a Chinese enterprise in the South Pacific Ocean, and also the first large-scale independent electricity generation system in Tonga.
For this project, Liang Bingqiang, Singyes Solar’s vice president, became tanned and swarthy, easily mistaken as a local, which helped him to mingle in with ease in return. “I hope the sunshine will reach every corner of the earth and green energy will bring Tonga convenience and happiness,” said Liang with full confidence.
“China is continuously becoming stronger while demands for our technologies and products from overseas markets are increasing as well. The rapid increase in orders leaves me less time going home,” said Liang, who is in charge of overseas markets and has been traveling back and forth between China and Africa, Europe, Australia, South Asia and Middle East.
“At first, when we mentioned that solar energy can be used to generate electricity, some Tonga officials were not certain about it. They came to visit China and we visited Tonga as well. The two sides went on inspection tours back and forth for many times,” said Xie Wen, president of Singyes Solar.
“When we visited the country, we could always feel the hospitality of the locals. They sang and danced for us. Influential tribal chiefs gathered around to learn from Chinese who shared their knowledge on new energy.”
“At the bonfire parties, the hospitality of the Tongans and the friendliness of us Chinese further strengthened the mutual cooperation, making it more stable and trustworthy.” Those happy party occasions left a strong impression in Xie Wen’s mind. He strongly believes that Tonga’s natural beauty and its people’s simplicity should be well protected.
Meanwhile, according to the person in charge of the project, after the power plant is fully completed, the volume of clean electricity transmitted to the main island for the first year will exceed 2.8 million KWh while annual electricity generation will hit 2.56 million Kwh, which will supply electricity for around 1,000 families, effectively reducing Tonga’s dependence on diesel generators. Beginning from April 2015, after almost 1 year and a half of negotiation and eight months of construction, the power plant was officially connected to the electricity grid on September 28, 2017. Till the day of the ceremony, it has generated more than 200, 000 KWh of electricity.
Moreover, Carl Sanft, Tonga Power Limited Board Chairman, said that Tonga Power’s vision was to supply safe, reliable, sustainable and economical electricity services and its cooperation with Singyes Solar has been “very pleasant”. “Tonga Power expects further cooperation with Singyes Solar and welcomes more enterprises like Singyes Solar to invest in Tonga,” he said.
The employees of Singyes Solar and Tongans are very friendly towards each other, as if they were one people. However, at the beginning of the project, it was not smooth. The sub-contractor’s team comprised locals, who were undertaking a photovoltaic project for the first time. Staff from Singyes had to provide step-by-step guidance on site to guide them through the installation of solar panels. The biggest problem was communication. Initially, the project staff experienced a severe language barrier with the locals and often relied on gestures to solve problems.
Adding to the woes, Tonga experienced a four-month-long monsoon, the longest in recent years. Incessant light rain severely hindered work efficiency. Even worse were the heavy rains, after which normal construction could not start for as long as three days. Moreover, according to the Tongan law, workers must not work on Sundays and there are a large number of public holidays.
This posed a huge challenge to the timely completion of the project. In this context, what really moved the project team was the fact that all project staff, be they Singyes employees or local Tongans, worked overtime almost every night to ensure that construction schedule was met. Together they guaranteed the execution of high quality work on time.
Despite the arduous nature of tasks, locals remained devoted to every single piece of work they did. For them, it was very pleasant to work for the solar power station. Therefore, they loved and cherished this precious job.
Chinese enterprises that have ventured abroad under the Belt and Road Initiative have achieved great feats. “In order to provide technologies to others, we need the best technologies ourselves. With the completion of the first phase of the project and its successful grid connection and electricity generation, we have confidence in our continuous investment and the constructions of second and third phases of the project,” said Xie Wen.
After the project’s completion, Singyes Solar is planning to build an energy storage system, which will be supplemented with corresponding control and communication scheduling systems to build a large-scale micro-grid system on Tonga’s Nukuʻlofa Island. The system will provide solutions with great application prospects for power supply on islands, remote villages, areas with power shortage, pastoral areas and even some urban areas.
In fact, the Tonga project was not the first Singyes Solar exported “green energy”. Just like many other enterprises that have gone global, Singyes Solar started its journey to overseas markets after the initial success of attempts in the early years.
Following the construction of its first overseas smart micro-grid project in Cameroon in 2013, Singyes Solar has undertaken multiple micro-grid projects in United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia. Presently, the overseas network of the company covers many countries and regions in Southeast Asia, Middle East, Australia, Europe and North America. As a private listed company experienced in solar technologies, Singyes Solar is looking for more opportunities in countries along the Belt and Road. In the future, similar green grids and power plants will be built in more countries in Africa and Southeast Asia. (Reporter: Zhao Chuanqi)
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