2013 Small Island Developing States Ashden Awards Finalist (www.ashden.org)

The island group of Palau, part of Micronesia in the western Pacific Ocean, might be a surprising location for a household energy efficiency programme. But the National Development Bank is leading the way with its programme to integrate energy efficient measures into its mortgage lending for new-builds, drastically cutting the need for energy-intensive air-conditioning.

Over the past three years nearly all the new-build on the islands has included approved energy-efficiency measures like installing natural ventilation or painting roofs white. Some houses have also received similar energy-efficient refurbishment or installed solar PV systems.

2013 Small Island Developing States Ashden Awards Finalist (www.ashden.org)

For scattered archipelago islands like Vanuatu, extending the electricity grid to poor rural areas often doesn’t make economic sense, meaning rural families rely on the dim light of dirty and dangerous kerosene lamps. By working closely with partners like youth groups and microfinance providers, as well as direct sales, Green Power has sold over 40,000 affordable solar lanterns since late 2009.  With family members and community leaders often buying lanterns on behalf of off-grid households on the remoter islands, the majority of the island’s 32,000 off-grid households now have clean electric light.

2013 Small Island Developing States Ashden Awards Finalist (www.ashden.org)

In January 2010, Duquesne Fednard’s newly built cookstoves factory was destroyed by the Haiti earthquake. Just over three years on, he has succeeded in halving the use of charcoal on cookstoves on an island where human plunder has all but eliminated the country’s forests.

Inspired by the achievements of Ashden winner Toyola Energy in Ghana, in September 2009 the Haitian entrepreneur founded a business to produce efficient charcoal-burning stoves. After the earthquake, production continued in tents. But when a hurricane destroyed the tents last year Fednard was on the brink of giving up. His staff persuaded him to keep going – and they were right to do so: the business is now doing well, selling 33,000 stoves over the past three years and reducing pressure on Haiti’s severely depleted wood resources.

2013 Small Island Developing States Ashden Awards Finalist (www.ashden.org)

Small islands face a double whammy of complete dependence on imported fuel combined with crippling import costs. The public-private partnership of Cabeolica in Cape Verde off the West Coast of Africa has harnessed the country’s plentiful Saharan winds to help it reduce diesel import costs and increase its energy security. In its first year of commercial operation, 25.5MW of windfarms have generated over a fifth of the electricity on the country’s four main islands – reaching more than 30 percent on two islands. As such, Cape Verde is leading the way among small islands in generating power from wind.

Investing in wind is also helping stall brain drain: Cabeolica is staffed entirely by Cape Verdeans, some of whom returned from overseas to take up professional jobs at home.