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Off-grid in the Seychelles Islands

The islands are an archipelago consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean at the eastern edge of the Somali Sea. Its capital and largest city, Victoria, is 1,500 kilometres east of mainland Africa. Nearby island countries and territories include; the Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, and the French overseas regions of Mayotte and Réunion to the south; and Maldives and the Chagos Archipelago (administered by the United Kingdom as the British Indian Ocean Territory) to the east. It is the least populous sovereign African country, with an estimated population of just 101,000 in 2022.
Seychelles was uninhabited before being visited by Europeans in the 16th century. It faced competing French and British interests until coming under full British control in the late 18th century. Since independence from the United Kingdom in 1976, it has developed from a largely agricultural society to a market-based diversified economy, dominated by services and tourism. It has become a major offshore financial centre for South Africa.

Between 1976 and 2015, nominal GDP grew nearly 700%, and purchasing power parity nearly 1600%. Since the late 2010s, the government has taken steps to encourage foreign investment.
Today, Seychelles boasts the highest nominal per capita GDP of any African nation. It has the second-highest Human Development Index of any African country after Mauritius. It is one of only two African countries classified as a high-income economy by the World Bank (the other being Mauritius).
Seychellois culture and society is an unsual mix of French, British, and African influences, with more recent additions of Chinese and Indian elements. The country is a member of the United Nations, the African Union, the Southern African Development Community, and the Commonwealth.

Geography

Of the 155 islands that constitute the Seychelles the 44 inner islands that sit on an ocean bank account for 54% of the land area and 98% of the population. The main island is Mahe which contains Victoria, capital, largest town and main commercial centre.

Climate

The islands are equable but humid with peak temperatures of 30 Degrees in the March to May period. Temperatures vary between 24 and 30 Deg C. Precipitation is 2900 mm in Victoria and 3,600mm in the mountains.
Mean annual sunshine is 2,527 hours while January is the lowest at 153 hrs the maximum is 252 hrs in May.
Environmentally the Seychelles has impressive biodiversity and has already met its millennium goals from year 2,000. The islands are highly favoured for diving and the government are very careful to retain the pristine underwater diversity.

History

Before the arrival of the Portuguese navigator, Vasco de Gama in 1503 the islands were uninhabited. The Portuguese were followed by the British East India company in 1609 and the French in 1756 who settled the islands. In 1794 there was a peaceful handover to the British but the French settlers remained. From 1810 until 1903 the Seychelles was administered as part of Mauritius.
Labour was provided by African slaves until the abolition of slavery in 1835, followed by indentured labourers from India. This has given the islands their unique creole culture and language which is spoken by most of the population.
The islands became independent in 1976 and this was followed by a coup in 1979 led by Albert Rene and until 1991 the country became a one party state. Indeed despite a new constitution the opposition failed to take power until 2020.
In recent years the country which is the most prosperous in Africa with very high levels of personal income has allied itself to the USA which Obama used as a drone base for the Indian Ocean and Middle East.

Demography

The population is a mixture of people including Africans, Chinese, Indians, French and British. The combination has produced a creole culture with a language that’s spoken by 93% of the population. 5% speak English and less than 1 % French.
IN 1960 there were just 47,000 people but the population including migrants has risen to an estimated 101,000 in 2022. In just 20 years the population has increased by 20,000. Most live on the main island of Mahe including the capital Victoria with 26,000.
All the population lives on just 8 islands out of the total of 115.

The Economy

Before the rise of tourism, plantation agriculture dominated the economy cultivating vanilla, cinnamon and copra. In 1960 33% of the population worked on plantations and 20% in public services. By 2015 per capita had risen 7 times and agriculture had dropped to 3% of employment. There was a massive transfer to tourism as agricultural pay could not compete. Over the same period tourist employment had risen to 30% of the workforce.

By 2013 there had been some recovery in fishing and agriculture . 90% of exports were composed of fresh and frozen fish. The balance included sweet potatoes, vanilla, coconuts and cinnamon.

Post 2008 most government organisations were privatised and this encouraged new foreign direct investment and the Seychelles became an offshore finance centre. Despite this development the country is the least corrupt in Africa.

After the building of the international airport in 1971 the tourist industry grew rapidly and the first three major hotels were completed in 1972.

However the dependence on long haul tourism has its risks. The Gulf War of 1990, the 2008 Crash and the pandemic all hit  visitor flows. They managed to resume early in 2021 by rapidly vaccinating the whole population.

Energy

Seychelles is almost totally dependent on fossil fuels. It buys 5,700 barrels of semi refined and refined oil products per day. Much of it is re-exported at a profit as bunkering oil. The state controlled power company controls electricity supply and generation. 69mW is installed on Mahe and 12 mW on Praslin. All smaller islands rely on generators.

Mahé’s 33 kV transmission network, in the state foreseen for 2020 (red and blue) Extensions to the North, needed by 2030, are marked in brown

The Seychelles has targets to reach 5% coverage of its electrical demand with renewable energy (RE) sources by 2020 and 15% coverage by 2030. In 2014, Energynautics GmbH was commissioned by the Public Utilities Corporation (PUC) of Seychelles, financed by the World Bank, to examine whether the Seychelles grid could absorb so much renewable generation and to develop a Grid Code for the connection of distributed generation units to the power system. In addition project partners Meister Consultants Group, Inc., prepared draft Feed-In Tariffs and Power Purchase Agreements for the Seychelles. 

The main island of Mahé, on which the capital Victoria is also located, has a population of around 80,000, a peak load of 50 MW and an area of 155 km². The next-most-populated islands Praslin and La Digue are only 44 km away from Mahé and connected to each other by undersea cables. The combined Praslin and La Digue system has a peak load of just over 7 MW and a population of 8,500. The remaining islands are only sparsely-populated. The interplay between size, weather and the characteristics of the power system makes each island system unique when considering the integration of renewables. In this paper we mostly focus on the main island of Mahé.

In 2013, eight wind turbines were installed in the harbour of the capital Victoria with a combined nominal power of 6 MW, which is enough to cover 2% of Mahé’s annual load. Apart from a few dozen photovoltaic (PV) installations, the rest of Seychelles’ generation is provided by diesel generators running predominantly on heavy fuel oil (HFO).

Seychelles Transmission Network

6The backbone of the Seychelles power system is an 11 kV and 33 kV network on Mahé and an 11 kV network on Praslin and La Digue. Praslin and La Digue are connected via undersea cables. A complete computer simulation model of these networks (with low voltage feeders aggregated at their transformers) was made available by the network operator PUC, including dynamic models of the diesel generators on Mahé. In 2014 there were only a few 33 kV lines on Mahé, but because of undervoltage and overloading problems due to growing demand, the 33 kV network will be extended to the South of the island by 2020 (Al-Habshi Consultants Office in association with ECOM, 2013) (see Figure 1). These extensions were built into the network model as well as extensions to North Mahé, which were found during the study to be necessary by 2030 due to the rising load.

Offgridinstaller Ltd, a British company can install a complete offgrid system at your island resort, home, hotel or restaurant which will guarantee you a free power source for many years. There is no pollution and no waste as The Seychelles receives a massive amount of 4.6 to 7.1 kwHrs per day per m2 – every day of the year 

By comparison London is between 750 and 1,100 kWHrs per M2 per year. In London, December solar output is 0.52 kwHrs per day m2 but is still an economic proposition.

At the present time high quality solar array panels can utilise up to 20% of the suns energy received with each panel able to hold up to 400 watts of energy.

The Seychelles has higher levels of solar radiation than most of Africa.

What can you power with solar ?

1. Residential housing of all sizes with solar panels mounted on roofs or ground mounted close to the property. Solar can power air conditioning, kitchen and utility equipment including dishwashers and washing machines and lighting both internal and external.
2. EV charging points for electric cars and vans, motor cycles and electric bikes. The energy of course is FOC so no more bills for petrol or diesel.
3. Pool pumps for swimming pools and watering gardens
4. Resorts – Large and small covering chalets, dining areas, swimming pools, kitchens and bathrooms.
5. Commercial properties including shops, offices and community buildings.
6. Warehousing for temperature controlled products
7. Agriculture – solar provides power for poultry farms, water pumping and irrigation, food processing and packing equipment, temperature controlled nurseries and on farm storage.

Offgridinstaller can also supply and fit as part of integrated solar installation ;

1. Reverse Osmosis to desalinize sea water to 60-70 bar
2. Solar thermal hot water for bathrooms and kitchens
3. LED lighting both internal and external including solar external lights.
4. Lithium Ion battery storage for nighttime power so you can have 100% offgrid power.

The role of ecotourism

Many of the Indian Ocean islands including The Seychelles place an emphasis on ecotourism and a sustainable way of life which helps preserve and advance the ecosystems of your precious island.

Solar and RO water systems can play a major role in meeting climate change targets by using the energy from sunlight to preserve and enhance the environment. They will also help to eliminate the use of fossil fuels – petrol, diesel and gas from these beautiful islands.

Offgridinstaller has a growing network of agents and partners across the world dedicated to providing jobs and skills for local people to cater for the ever growing market for renewable energy and clean water.

Our local partners support every installation and work closely with our monitoring system to ensure maximum efficiency for all offgrid installations.

Contact Offgridinstaller now at info@offgridinstaller.com

You can also check our website www.offgridinstaller.comto see some of the jobs completed by the company to the satisfaction of our clients.

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