Natural solutions
Harnessing the forces of nature to generate the power we need

Wales. Denmark. The Cook Islands.
On the surface, there are no obvious connections between these countries. But look closer and you’ll see that they are all relatively small in area and population, and each is subject to the whims of the sea.
Here is another thing they have in common – Simon Spinola has lived in all three.
Spinola, 26, and his 25-year-old partner, Samantha Jones, arrived on Rarotonga two weeks ago as part of their year-long journey around the South Pacific.
The two are ardent travellers, having trekked through North America, Europe and Asia. They’ve visited the base camp at Mt. Everest and explored China extensively.
While those jaunts tend to be part adventure, part playing tourist, Spinola, who majored in environmental studies at the University of Roskile in Denmark, is constantly observing how other countries cope with the challenge of maintaining and preserving their environments.
“I have an eye for that sort of thing,” he says. “So, the first thing I noticed (on Rarotonga) are the solar panels. It’s also interesting to see what sort of rubbish is being dumped here, and what’s being recycled.”
The Roskile campus generated its own power via a windmill system and had enough remaining to feed back into the national grid, thus helping to provide electricity for the entire nation.
“They do pride themselves a lot on their energy efficiency in Denmark,” Spinola says. “The emissions on the cars are mandated quite strictly and public transport usage is very high.”
Harnessing the force of the ocean via wave-powered generators is also something that is being used both in Denmark and the couple’s home country of Wales to provide an alternative – and natural – power source.
Despite these Northern Hemisphere countries being more advanced in technology than the Cook Islands, Spinola’s early impressions are that Rarotonga could easily embrace some of these systems. The end result would be less dependence on foreign oil that is costly to purchase and expensive to import.
Spinola says the northwest section of the island, with its lack of major resorts, would be an ideal location for offshore windmills.
“There’s also quite a capacity for electricity generated by wave generation,” he says. “Because there’s quite a tide here, constantly battering the coast. Again, the undeveloped northeast corner would be ideal for trialling these sorts of things.”
He admits there would be costs involved but, for the most part, they’d be of the one-off variety, as compared to the ongoing cost of importing oil.
“If you could produce more environmentally-friendly power, it could be an eco-tourist draw as well,” he says. “You could have people going out on tourist boats to view the generators, and the Cook Islands could be promoted as a green country. It might encourage certain types of travellers to come here more often.”
Individual homeowners could use personal-sized windmills and solar panels to create their own energy and then earn the money to pay for the installation by selling excess power back to the national grid.
Sensitive to how it looks when visitors barge in, proclaiming how much better things are “back home,” Spinola is hesitant to give further suggestions. But when pressed for his opinion, based on education and experience, he offers up a number of other comments.
Diverting grey water from sinks and washing machines into toilets would save water, he explains. A public transport system with more frequent routes would encourage tourists and locals alike to park their vehicles, thus saving on emissions and petrol expenses. Farm manure could be processed into bio-fuel.
He’s also surprised such international vehicle rental companies as Avis and Budget haven’t introduced hybrid or electric cars to the island.
“These are the kinds of solutions that have worked in developing countries,” he says. “The Cook Islands is relatively well-developed and has a high standard of living. It wouldn’t take much to actually have an energy-efficient country.”
Spinola is quite willing to consult with anyone on environmental issues.
“I’d love to see what’s actually happening here,” he says. “Every day for me is a new education. There might be initiatives here I haven’t seen in other places that I can take back with me and pass them on to other places. It could be mutually beneficial.”
Anyone wishing to contact Simon Spinola can do so by ringing Cook Islands Times reporter John Ireland on ext. 209.