Energy Policy: 2037 target date

By 2037, this administration hopes to see a decrease in the importation of fossil fuels of 75 per cent and an increase in renewable energy by the same amount in the same year.

This is coming from the Energy Minister, Senator Darcy Boyce who at the time was speaking on the Barbados National Energy Policy 2017-2037, which was recently approved by Cabinet and released into the public domain on Monday afternoon at the Energy Division, Ministry of Energy, Country Road.

He said that they would use natural gas as a transitional fuel and this fuel would be a mixed with different types of renewable energy sources.

“The policy projects a reduction in the importation of fossil fuels of 75 per cent by 2037 and an increase in renewable energy by 75 per cent by the same year with natural gas being used as a transitional fuel. The fossil fuels are proposed to be replaced with a mix of 15 per cent of solar, 20 per cent of wind, 30 per cent of biomass including waste to energy, 13 per cent of biofuels and 20 per cent of natural gas both locally produced and imported.”

Boyce said that the US Department of Energy estimates that by 2040, 78 per cent of the world’s energy consumption would come from fossil fuel. It is therefore imperative that Barbados takes steps to ensure they use energy wisely.

“The pragmatic nature of this policy recognises that, according to the Energy Information Administration of the US Department of Energy, an estimated 78 per cent of the world’s energy consumption by 2040 will still likely be satisfied by fossil fuel. In this regard, the Barbados National Energy Policy has outlined a course of action to ensure the responsible exploration and production of fossil fuel that may be located in Barbados Exclusive Economic Zone. Some of these resources will be used in the further development of the sustainable energy sector.”

He stated in order to ensure that this happens, Barbadians would have to embark on a set of values devoted to promoting things like efficiency; safeguarding of the environment and affordability.

“The implementation of this policy will see Barbados embrace a pragmatic set of core values over the next twenty years in the development of the energy sector. These values relate to: diversity; efficiency; affordability; reliability; capacity and collaboration; entrepreneurship; environ-ment; and regulation.”

The ways in which this can be achieved in outlined in the policy which was a collaborative effort aimed at promoting the green economy, said the Energy Minister.

“The Barbados National Energy Policy represents several months of careful collaborative work by the stakeholders within the energy sector across the public and private sectors as well as civil society. The intent of this policy is to bring about significant transformation to Barbados’ production, distribution, and consumption of energy, as well as to the socio-economic landscape of Barbados, as we advance towards a green economy paradigm.”