Seychelles is an archipelago of 115 islands situated in the South Western Indian Ocean. Forty-one of the islands are granitic in origin and seventy-four are coral atolls. The total land area is 455 km2. The mainland of Africa is around one thousand kilometers to the west of the Seychelles. The population of Seychelles was estimated at 95,843 in 2017. About 95% of the population lives on the three main islands, Mahé, Praslin and La Digue. The capital is Victoria and the official languages are English and French.

The economy of the country is dominated by the service sector, which contributes approximately 70% of the GDP. Due to its high dependence on oil, Seychelles was much affected in 2008 by oil price hikes reaching 147 dollars/barrel. Being more than one thousand kilometers from any neighboring country, and deprived of any indigenous source of fossil fuels, the country depends heavily on the import of refined petroleum to satisfy national needs, as well as the demands for international marine and aviation bunkers.

Seychelles does not have any installed hydropower capacity. The potential for electricity generation from wind energy is present in the islands, with some sites having been identified as having average wind speeds of 6.9-7.5 m/s at 80m suitable for commercial electricity generation.

Given that Seychelles is a tropical country receiving large amounts of sunshine, with an average 6.9 hours of sunshine per day, and an average irradiance of 5.8 kWh/m2/day, there is great potential to replace at least some of the current oil-generated (and polluting) electricity with solar energy systems. One opportunity with high economic, financial and environmental viability is the implementation of rooftop grid-connected PV systems. Solar thermal systems have also been proven viable in the country.

In its National Climate Change Strategy and Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) Seychelles pledge to reduce its economy wide absolute GHG emissions by 21.4% in 2025 and 29.0% in 2030 relative to baseline emissions subject to international support. The legislated targets of renewable energy consumption are set at 5% by 2020 and 15% by 2030, as outlined in the 2010 Energy Policy.  Four renewable energy technologies are identified that may be appropriate in the country: solar PV, wind, micro-hydro, and biomass/municipal solid waste.