Ken Davey.
By MARAIA VULA
Fiji has the capability to produce biogas within the next decade, says an expert.
Ken Davey, an independent Biogas and Bioenergy consultant, made these comments during a presentation at the Fiji National University’s Nasinu Campus on Friday.
Mr Davey further said introducing biogas in Fiji would create more employment.
“This will create employment as with the German biogas sector it has created 45,000 jobs now. Quite a remarkable set of jobs even though biogas is big and it supports a lot of jobs,” he said.
Mr Davey stressed this was an issue which needs to be discussed openly with all stakeholders.
“It all comes down to setting the right policy and I hope this can become an issue that people will discuss in this year’s election,” he said.
“It’s a big learning curve and the most important thing here is the education part and getting people to understand how achievable this is.”
Mr Davey has a background in sustainable development.
For the past five years, he has been employed directly within the German biogas sector which is believed to have one of the largest and most sophisticated biogas sectors in the world.
Viable for businesses
Mr Davey assured: “If you use a biogas fuel, if co-generated or tri-generated system and embed that in a business, it requires a lot of thermal energy which might help that business to grow because you are getting cheaper energy.
“Everything they are using now is important so the local option is not becoming economically viable.
“It’s keeping the Fijian dollar in Fiji and not putting it in a ship and sending it somewhere else because you have this multiplier factor this dollar turnover in the local economy.”
Mr Davey highlighted the first thing is to setup a local biogas station and start operations.