A New Zealand energy consultant says electricity data from all over the Pacific should be collected by a single body to allow for better analysis of information and more robust policies.
Otago Polytechnic's Neville Auton will be discussing the idea of a central database at the United Nations Small Islands Developing States conference in Apia next month.
Mr Auton says data collection processes for renewable energy are not well understood.
He says data being collected at a single point would allow academics and policy-makers to see what is happening with energy across the region, and collect reliable information over many years.
"There's an opportunity in regard to bringing electricity data and renewable generation data back via satellite to a central database, which would allow all the small islands to have all their data collected in a single point, which would then allow statistical analysis and improvement so that they could see across the board."
An energy consultant from Otago Polytechnic, Neville Auton.
