BREA President believes B’dos can achieve 100 per cent renewables

President of the Barbados Renewable Energy Association (BREA), Aidan Rogers says he has no doubt that Barbados’ power supply can be changed to 100 per cent renewables.

 

In a recent interview with The Barbados Advocate, Rogers said that while the potential exists for it to move from an idea to reality, to achieve it there would have to be buy-from all the stakeholders.

 

“One of the critical issues in this country is to have a meeting of the minds. I often liken this situation to when I go shopping for my three-year old daughter. She goes into a store, she sees a puzzle, she is attracted to the completed image of the puzzle; but when she takes that puzzle home and she opens the box, there are several pieces scattered around, and we are still at this stage in Barbados where we have those several pieces scattered around relative to renewable energy,” he indicated.

 

All those “pieces of the puzzle”, the BREA president said, must work in tandem in order for the 100 per cent renewables strategy to come to fruition in Barbados. Included in that, Rogers said, is the need for financial institutions to see the benefits that can be obtained and to offerattractive financing to average Barbadians, so that they can pursue the provision of renewable energy as a viable business venture.

 

“We have a number of questions to be answered. Has Government endorsed the strategy fully? We have regulatory policy; the regulator needs to be on board to offer the right investment climate in terms of the rates, so that persons can see it is attractive to invest in a hundred per cent concept with lots of wind, solar and pumped-storage. We then have the whole issue of Town Planning. Do we have the planning permission to meet all these series of investments – all the wind farms, the pumped hydro facility, and the increases in the solar PV that is 
required?” he said.

 

His comments came as he noted that the key factor to consider as it relates to the 100 per cent strategy, is that if achieved, it would result in significant economic benefits to the island. Rogers explained that moving to 100 per cent renewables would stabilise the country’s overall electricity costs and positively impact every segment of business operations in Barbados. Moreover, he noted that if locals were to invest in the sector, it would help to keep more foreign exchange in the country and promote wealth creation for average Barbadians.

 

He made the point while noting that achieving 100 per cent renewables calls for various tried and tested technologies to be employed. He said then, that in addition to solar and wind which are both already being pursued locally, they feel that the use of a pumped-storage hydro system would truly take the country towards 100 per cent renewables. He said while this technology would be new to Barbados, it has been in existence for over 100 years and could be of benefit to the island.

 

The Barbados Advocate understands that this technology utilises two reservoirs at different altitudes; when the water is released from the upper reservoir to the lower reservoir, the down flow creates energy that is converted to electricity. However, Rogers indicated that the reservoirs can serve a dual purpose, as these manmade water catchment areas can help address the water scarcity issues confronting the country.

 

“So now we have to do the technical research and see what is possible and where it is possible. This is one of the issues that will be addressed in our renewable energy conference next month, we will actually be bringing in technical pumped hydro specialists to share their experiences and to share what they think is potentially possible and how the 100 per cent strategy, relying on the pumped storage hydro could be made a reality. So we are moving from the realm of the speculative to the certain,” he stated. (JRT)