IRENA continues to support and manage the Lighthouses Initiative, which now has 36 SIDS as members, as well as 19 development partners and other entities. Through this partnership, IRENA is carrying out resource assessments, grid integration studies, energy transition plans and capacity building activities within the Atlantic, Indian Ocean, AIMS, Caribbean and Pacific regions. IRENA is also engaging with additional islands to provide valuable insights, support and transfer of knowledge and experience. IRENA's advisory services also include implementation pathways, facilitating the achievement of targets set in national policies and in National Determined Contributions (NDCs).

IRENA will continue to provide knowledge, tools, services and a platform for cooperation to facilitate the planning and implementation of renewable energy solutions in SIDS. Activities within the Lighthouse Initiative will continue to be regularly reported to and followed up by IRENA governing bodies and implementation will be facilitated by a system of focal points. Policy, regulatory, financial and technical challenges will be addressed in cooperation with SIDS governments with a focus on capacity building, bankability of project proposals and tools to enable higher renewable energy shares in SIDS power systems.

All SIDS members of the Lighthouses Initiative: Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cabo Verde, Cuba, Comoros, Cook Islands, Dominican Republic, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Grenada, Guyana, Kiribati, Republic of Maldives, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Montserrat, Nauru, New Caledonia, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. A wide range of activities in all SIDS regions were undertaken within the framework of the Lighthouses Initiative during the reporting period. A few significant examples are: Targeted advisory services, such as through roadmaps and grid studies, have been key for SIDS to integrate larger share of renewables into energy mix. - 39 Quickscans (an assessment of SIDS readiness to deploy renewables within the power sector) have been completed. - Studies on renewable energy desalination opportunities for Kiribati and Cabo Verde have been completed. - Roadmaps have been completed for Kiribati and Barbados. - Following IRENA’s recommendations, Samoa is implementing the necessary infrastructure upgrades to allow for reliable grid operation with planned solar photovoltaics (PV) projects. - A grid study for the Cook Islands has supported the development of renewable energy plans for the island of Aitutaki. - A grid integration study in Antigua has given policy makers and the public utility insights on the amount of variable renewable energy that can be implemented on the island without major infrastructure upgrades. - Within the AIMS region, IRENA’s Global Atlas team has piloted a new wind and solar site assessment service. - Tourism-focused case studies for the Caribbean and the Pacific have been completed. IRENA’s support to NDCs implementation pathways is being facilitated by a study quantifying additional renewable energy generation capacity required and investment needs based on the NDCs of islands. Capacity building and training: An important part of transferring knowledge is the tackling of information gaps and the building of capacity. IRENA has continued to provide training in collaboration with a range of SIDS Lighthouses partners. - The Government of Japan and IRENA coordinated training workshops for Pacific SIDS and the Maldives to further explore the enabling environments in support of the wide scale deployment of renewable energy. - In recognition of the importance of the integration of variable renewables, IRENA held three technical workshops in Saint Maarten, Tonga, and Cuba. - Another workshop on financing renewable energy in SIDS was held in Nadi, Fiji in December 2016, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of State and Department of Energy, the Ministry of the Environment of Japan and the Pacific Community (SPC), with the support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank.