The energy sector of Mauritius is a fascinating case study into the challenges of transitioning to renewables in a developing country. I spent the last few weeks researching and writing a paper on the structure of the nation’s current grid, its history, and its plans for the future. I hope it provides context into the challenges the nation’s energy sector has faced and insight into what the future of their grid may look like. I’ve included a link to the paper and an abstract below:

Paper: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YVG8fOPEkfeVenRlOaHvDjDGhUCYJB2X/view?usp=sharing

Abstract:

As an island nation, Mauritius has no fossil fuel reserves. Yet, nearly 80% of its grid runs off of non-renewables resources. This forces them to import their primary energy as coal and petroleum products. To avoid the geopolitical instability and price fluctuations associated with the international energy trade and to achieve energy independence, Mauritius has aimed to capture more of its islands rich renewable resources. They aim for 35% of their grid to run off of renewables by 2025. Mauritius’s current renewables primarily come from bagasse – a sugarcane pulp that results as a by-product of the sugarcane refinement process. With the decline in Mauritius’s sugar industry, it needs to capture more novel renewables than ever before to meet its energy independence goals. This transition to new renewable sources has been a complex process involving experimental programs in geothermal, waste-to-energy, wind, solar, biofuels, and more. Through this research, Mauritius has found the most promise in solar power, in part due to the rapid decline in costs of photovoltaics over the last decade. The country is now investing heavily into solar development projects and solutions to associated problems such as intermittency and frequency instability. This has included purchasing grid scale batteries and constructing pumped hydro plants for grid scale energy storage and upgrading their grid technologies for better frequency regulation. This paper explores both the historical and present day challenges of the Mauritian energy sector to gain insights into the future of the nation’s grid moving forward.