In 2022, electricity consumption in Kiribati was about **307 kWh per person**, just 8% of the global average of 3,794 kWh per person—or roughly one-thirteenth as much. Low-carbon solar electricity accounted for about 77 kWh per person, approximately a quarter of the total, while fossil sources supplied the remaining three-quarters, about 230 kWh per person. Such low electricity availability can constrain healthcare, refrigeration, education, water services and economic development. Expanding clean electricity would help improve these services while reducing dependence on fossil fuels, which contribute to climate change and air pollution.

Is Electricity Growing in Kiribati?

Electricity consumption in Kiribati had **not regained its historical peak** by 2022. The latest total of 307 kWh per person was 16 kWh below the 2019 record of 323 kWh per person, a decline of about 5%. Low-carbon electricity generation followed the same pattern: its 2022 level of 77 kWh per person was about 4 kWh, or 5%, below the 2019 record of 81 kWh per person. These figures show a retreat from the peak rather than sustained growth, although they do not establish that consumption fell every intervening year. This shortfall is concerning given the need for more electricity to support development and future electrification.

Suggestions

Kiribati should prioritize expanding its existing solar generation, which already supplies a substantial share of its electricity, alongside storage and stronger local electricity networks. Australia, a relevant regional example, generated 57 TWh of solar electricity; its experience offers lessons for deploying solar across dispersed communities. Other island settings, such as Japan and Taiwan, generated about 105 TWh and 18 TWh of solar electricity respectively, providing further examples to study rather than output targets to copy. Kiribati could also assess locally suitable wind projects, drawing on Australia's 43 TWh of wind generation. Nuclear should be considered in long-term clean-electricity planning through an assessment of appropriately scaled technologies and international partnerships: France, with 379 TWh of nuclear generation, and the United Arab Emirates, with 32 TWh, illustrate nuclear's contribution to substantial low-carbon electricity supplies.

History

The supplied historical record covers only **2019–2022**, and each year lists a solar-generation change of 0 TWh compared with the previous year. At the reported precision, therefore, the record shows no measurable annual expansion in solar electricity during this period. These zero changes do not mean that solar generated no electricity, nor do they rule out small changes hidden by rounding. They also do not necessarily conflict with the decline in per-person low-carbon generation, since absolute generation and generation per person are different measures. Overall, the available history points to a period without visible solar growth, strengthening the case for a renewed expansion of clean electricity.

Electricity Imports and Exports

Balance of Trade