ABSTRACT
Electrification and
sustainable energy uses are increasing in Papua New Guinea (PNG) over the last
few decades. The bulk of PNG’s population (85%) lives in isolated and dispersed
villages in the rural areas. Most of these isolated and dispersed areas are
still yet to be connected to an electricity supply. Papua New Guinea (PNG) is richly
endowed with natural resources, but exploitation has been hampered by rugged
terrain, land tenure issues, and the high cost of developing infrastructure.
The study is focused on mapping of enriched renewable energy zones of the
entire country. Different variables related to renewable, like surface albedo
index, earth skin temperature, solar insolation
incident, and wind speed are used for this purpose. Three interpolation
approaches, like inverse distance
weighted averaging, thin-plate smoothing splines, and kriging, are evaluated to
interpolate all variables. Rating and weight sum overlay operation is applied
to derive potential renewable
energy zones in this equatorial country. Results show that potential renewable
energy distribution is high in Papua New Guinea on the March and September
equinoxes. Yearly average distribution of renewable energy source variables is
significantly higher in most areas of Manus, New Ireland, North Solomon, West New
Britain, Northern, Central and Milne Bay; a larger portion of East New Britain;
the northern part of West and East Sepik, Central, Morobe and eastern part of
Madang province. The potential renewable energy distribution data can help to
establish sustainable energy production in the country.