Pacific Islands look to coconut power to fuel future growth

All over the Pacific power authorities, private companies and entrepreneurs have been experimenting with coconut oil as an alternative to diesel fuel for vehicles, power generators and even ships.

Coconut trees are found everywhere in the Pacific’s tropical islands. The dried white flesh, known as copra, from six to 10 coconuts produces a litre of oil, making the substitution for expensive diesel seem a no-brainer.
But ironically the growth in the use of biofuels worldwide has helped push the price of crop oils higher and coconut oil now fetches nearly 1,000 dollars a ton.

“There is strong demand for vegetable oils, there is a huge demand in the US and Europe,” says Jan Cloin, the energy advisor at SOPAC, the Secretariat of the Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission based in Suva.

“The Pacific island countries could get into a situation where they cannot afford to use the oil themselves and would profit more by sending their oil to other countries.”

AFP