Meet Dr. Atul Raturi, the Pacific's most passionate solar evangelist.
Dr. Raturi, originally from India, began his teaching career at the University of Nairobi in Kenya in the 1980s. In 1998, he moved to the PNG University of Technology in Lae where he lectured at the Applied Physics Department for 9 years.
While in Papua New Guinea, Dr Raturi witnessed firsthand the hardships villagers faced in having access to electricity. He observed that the villagers walked 5 km daily to charge their mobile phones, this ignited his passion for solar energy as a solution for remote or isolated communities.
In 2007 he moved to Fiji to lecture at The University of the South Pacific (USP), bringing with him his zeal to see remote island communities in the Pacific having access to electricity.
Dr. Raturi is at the forefront of driving Fiji's ambition to reduce emissions to 30% by 2030, and 100% by 2050. At the USP campus, Dr. Raturi has installed a PV system and built an electric charging system to charge electric vehicles and e-bikes on campus. He said projects such as these give his students at The USP both theoretical and practical knowledge in solar energy theory and system components.
He desires to see Fiji, like her island neighbors Samoa and Tonga, achieve greater solar dependence. Around 60% of Fiji's energy generation is renewable (mainly hydropower), and the remaining 40% is thermal energy sourced from diesel engines. Since Fiji's hydro reserves have been exhausted, he believes solar can capture 15 to 20% of thermal's share in the energy market.
Visually on the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) chart, Dr. Raturi remarked, that SDG 7 is at the centre. He believes that if Fiji can solve Clean Energy, they can also solve other problems.
One of his projects in Wainiika Village, Cakaudrove Province, Vanua Levu, in Fiji's Northern Division, is a testament to his belief. With help from the French Embassy in Suva and UNSW, he led the USP team to build a solar-powered refrigeration system for fish storage there in 2016. Through the system, small enterprises benefited, enabling the remote community to have ice cream for the first time; a small but profound event.
Dr. Raturi encourages hosting Talanoas (meetings/kibungs) with locals, to co-design solar systems based on specific community needs; embracing the Pacific way. Furthermore, for the systems to be sustainable, he advocates that the investments must make economic sense, encouraging communities to counter-fund the systems or that the system should pay for itself; the Wainiika Village solar refrigeration is a successful example.
Dr Raturi is an optimist and his delight comes from seeing the impact his projects have had on local Fijian communities and the rapid improvements of solar technology in recent years; enabling solar energy to be economically accessible to more people.
Tags: Carl Smith Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
#solar #Fiji #Pacific
(Sources in the comments)
