Energy plan in progress

 A PLAN to develop and use geothermal energy in Papua New Guinea is underway.

This follows an agreement between the governments of PNG and Iceland. A statement from PNG Power on Monday, Minister for State Enterprises Ben Micah and PNG Power chief executive officer John Tangit were in Iceland last week to study developments on the use of geothermal energy. 

They were invited by the minister of industry to study the use of geothermal energy there. 

The agreement was established between PNG Power and the Reykjavik Geothermal in which the Icelandic geo-energy facility will assist PNG with geothermal generating development.    

“The potential for analysing and utilising energy from geothermal resource is quite significant in our country. We will now go back to look at how we can make use of our geothermal energy resources,” Micah said.

“Sixty per cent of the country’s electricity production comes from fossil fuels and Papua New Guineans want to change this by using geothermal energy. It is possible to utilise geothermal energy for other purposes like tourism attraction.”

Micah said PNG was located on the Pacific Ring of Fire where there was chain of volcanoes ideal for the project.