NUKU’ALOFA, TONGA (14th September 2018) — The Ground Breaking Ceremony today marks a contribution from the Government of Japan of 20 million USD for the first ever large scaled Wind farm Project in the Kingdom of Tonga. This is a milestone in the life of this project but also a tangible progress towards the Governments overall objective reducing reliance on costly imported diesel through substantial investments in renewable energy.
As stated by Honourable Minister for Public Enterprise, Saia Piukala, “We mean business when we say 50% renewable energy by 2020”. 
Petroleum dependency makes Tonga highly vulnerable to oil price changes and shocks, which in turn affects our ability to afford food, goods, electricity, and transport. More than 91% of our overall grid-connected electricity demand is supplied by generators fuelled by imported diesel. In addition, an estimated 13 million litres of diesel is consumed to generate this electricity at a cost that’s about 10% of our gross domestic product and about 15% of the total value of imports. Peak demand is expected to increase to 10.2 Megawatts by 2020.
This project is a joint effort from the Government of Japan, Japan International Cooperation Agency, Government of Tonga and Tonga Power Limited. The Government of Japan has also contributed a 1MW Solar Farm in Vaini which are just some of the projects that the Government of Japan has contributed to the Kingdom of Tonga.
The Guest of Honour for the Ground Breaking Event were their Majesties King Tupou VI and Her Majesty Queen Nanasipau’u.
The expected completion date for the JICA Wind Generation System project is June 2019.