COMLER Power Wins Bid for Solomon Islands Tina River National Hydropower Project, 7×800kW Diesel Gensets to Boost South Pacific Clean Energy Development
Project Introduction
The Tina River Hydropower Development Project is Solomon Islands’ flagship national renewable energy infrastructure funded jointly by Asian Development Bank and World Bank. Located on Guadalcanal Island around 30km southeast of Honiara, the capital city, the project features a total installed hydropower capacity of 15MW with three sets of 5MW hydro-turbine generators, a 71.5m-high RCC dam, a 3.3km headrace tunnel and supporting 66kV power transmission lines. Upon completion, hydropower from this plant will supply 68% of Honiara’s municipal grid consumption, ranking as the largest clean energy construction project in Solomon Islands over the past 30 years.
The project consists of construction phase and commercial operation phase. Seven sets of COMLER 800kW automatic diesel generator sets are purchased for full-time construction power supply during construction and emergency backup power for hydropower plant powerhouse. After the hydropower station connects to national grid officially, these seven units will serve as black-start backup power and supplementary power in dry seasons when river runoff drops sharply and hydropower output declines sharply.
The contracted COMLER 800kW containerized generator sets are equipped with ATS automatic transfer switch, remote intelligent monitoring and anti-corrosion coating against high temperature, high humidity and coastal salt fog, perfectly adapting to Solomon Islands’ tropical island climate, supporting parallel operation and unattended automatic start-stop.
2.1 National Energy Transition for Solomon Islands
Electricity price in Solomon Islands ranks among the world’s highest at around USD 0.82/kWh, and the country has long relied on expensive imported diesel for power generation. The completion of Tina Hydropower will slash nationwide power cost and cut annual CO₂ emission by over 31,000 tons to fulfill national climate commitment. Seven COMLER backup units secure full-cycle power stability to avoid construction suspension and large-scale grid blackout after grid connection, accelerating domestic independent clean energy transformation.
2.2 China-Oceania Economic & Trade Cooperation Milestone
This delivery marks COMLER’s landmark project in South Pacific infrastructure market. Leveraging China’s advanced power equipment manufacturing strength, COMLER’s gensets access Solomon’s core national hydropower supply chain, facilitating bilateral cooperation on infrastructure and renewable energy between China and Solomon Islands.
2.3 On-site Construction & Grid Safety Guarantee
Island hydropower is severely affected by seasonal flood and drought with volatile water output. The 7×800kW standby genset cluster can instantly supplement power during water shortage, hydro-unit maintenance or grid fault to guarantee uninterrupted dam pouring, tunnel excavation and electromechanical installation, lifting overall project power reliability by over 95%.
3. Company Profile of COMLER Power Group
Shandong COMLER Power Group is based in Wenshang Industrial Park, Jining, Shandong Province, founded in 2014 with registered capital of RMB 350 million. As a national high-tech & specialized sophisticated enterprise, COMLER owns a 500-mu intelligent manufacturing industrial park. After asset integration, the group builds a full industrial chain covering R&D, production, sales and after-sales service for generator sets ranging from 3kW to 10000kW, with over 300 models across six core product lines including automatic parallel gensets, containerized silent units, high-voltage gensets and mobile power stations.
COMLER runs two exclusive R&D centers and maintains industry-university-research cooperation with top Chinese universities, holding dozens of core invention patents for power generation equipment. All products pass ISO9001, ISO14001 and CQC certification. The company has long-term supply cooperation with CNPC, Sinopec, China Railway and CCCC for global engineering projects. Its products are exported to more than 50 countries across Southeast Asia, Africa and South Pacific, widely deployed in hydropower plants, mines, oil & gas fields and off-grid island power projects. COMLER provides one-stop customized solution, complete delivery and overseas on-site commissioning service for large-scale overseas hydropower backup power projects.
4. Full News Release Text
Recently, Shandong COMLER Power Group has successfully won the bidding for standby generator supply of Tina River Hydropower Development Project, the landmark national infrastructure of Solomon Islands. The formal supply contract of seven sets of 800kW containerized automatic diesel generator sets has been signed, and the equipment will be shipped in batches to project construction site near Honiara, securing full-cycle power guarantee for this iconic South Pacific hydropower project.
Jointly financed by ADB and World Bank, the Tina River Hydropower Project acts as the core of Solomon Islands’ national energy reform. Once fully commissioned, the project will fundamentally change the country’s heavy dependence on costly imported diesel power, cut annual fossil fuel consumption significantly and reduce electricity expense for local households and enterprises. Restricted by Solomon Islands’ tropical rainforest climate featuring high temperature, high humidity, coastal salt fog and alternating drought & flood, the construction and post-operation of hydropower plant require highly reliable backup power. After rounds of global technical tender and field condition test, COMLER stood out with customized anti-corrosion island-type gensets, intelligent parallel control system and abundant overseas island project execution experience.
The seven customized 800kW COMLER gensets adopt fully enclosed sound-insulated container structure and tropical anti-corrosion coating, equipped with 5th-generation COMLER intelligent control system supporting zero-second auto startup upon grid failure and multi-unit synchronous parallel operation. During construction phase, these units supply uninterrupted power for dam construction, headrace tunnel excavation and powerhouse civil engineering. After the whole 15MW hydropower station is connected to national grid, all seven gensets switch to standby mode to supplement power instantly in dry seasons with insufficient river runoff and low hydro output, as well as undertake black-start and emergency maintenance power demand of the hydropower plant.
Supported by mature global supply chain and one-stop engineering service system, all gensets have passed full-range factory performance inspection and will be loaded for ocean freight soon. As a leading Chinese genset exporter, COMLER keeps expanding business in Oceania and Southeast Asian energy infrastructure market. The Tina River project marks a crucial milestone of COMLER’s high-quality Chinese-made power equipment entering core national infrastructure of South Pacific sovereign countries. Moving forward, COMLER will keep delivering premium power equipment and integrated power solutions to facilitate global low-carbon energy transition.
