The New Zealand government expects to see a dramatic rise in renewable energy generation after a Pacific Energy Summit in Auckland next week.
The summit is being jointly hosted with the European Union and New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully says the conference will help Pacific Islands countries move towards generating 50 per cent of their electricity through renewable means.
He says most Pacific countries deliver well under 10 per cent of their electricity renewably, with an overriding dependence on diesel generation.
Mr McCully says the conference aims to have major donors commit several hundred millions of dollars to new infrastructure.
He says it is very ambitious but the goal of substantially reducing the dependence on imported diesel makes it worth a serious effort.
