From left: Prime Minister the Right Honourable Freundel Stuart; CARICOM Secretary General, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque; Pim van Ballekom, Vice President of the European Investment Bank and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Senator Darcy Boyce were among those attending the opening ceremony of the conference

ENERGY TARGET

Tue, 10/11/2016 - 12:00am

By the year 2030 Barbados aims to have 65 per cent of its power generation being derived from renewable energy sources.

That’s according to Prime Minister, Freundel Stuart who added that a recently concluded Energy Road Map for Barbados done by the International Renewable Energy Agency, shows that increasing the renewable energy penetration level in the electricity supply beyond the 65 per cent target, is both technically feasible and economically viable. Moreover, he indicated that the report shows that the country can achieve a target of 76 per cent by 2030, with a reduction of electricity system costs by $200 million per year and the creation of over 5 000 green energy jobs.

His comments came as he delivered the feature address at the opening ceremony of the Inaugural European Union-CARIFORUM Sustainable Energy Conference at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre yesterday morning, as he noted that the aim is also to achieve a 22 per cent reduction in electricity consumption compared to a Business as Usual scenario by 2029.

Referring to 2012 fossil fuel importation bill, which he said was equivalent to “a staggering 9.6 per cent” the island’s gross domestic product, the PM said it reinforced the need to focus local efforts on the use of alternative, indigenous sources of energy. As such, he said his Government’s vision for the country is one of enhancing economic growth by reducing energy costs, enhancing energy security by the reduction of the importation of fossil fuels through the increased penetration of renewable energy and energy efficiency into the energy mix, and reducing the emission of greenhouse gases and pollutants from the combustion of fossil fuels.

“Barbados also intends to achieve an economy wide reduction in Greenhouse Gas Emissions of 44 per cent compared to a Business As Usual scenario by 2030. These targets will be achieved through a diversified portfolio of renewable energy projects and energy efficiency programmes which include waste to energy, bio-mass, landfill gas to energy and bio-energy projects,” he said.

PM Stuart added that in order to achieve the targets, he told the audience which included representatives from 50 countries around the world, that his Government has been granting attractive fiscal incentives for green energy initiatives and has also legislated a new regulatory regime to enable Independent Power Producers at the distributed and utility scale level to sell electricity to the grid from renewable energy systems. The Prime Minister further stated that that regime will be fully implemented by the mid-2017.

“There are now over nine megawatts of intermittent renewable energy generating systems connected to the grid with most of these being solar photovoltaic units. Another ten megawatts will be commissioned this month and we expect that by this time next year we would have issued licenses for 65 megawatts of renewable energy generation capacity to be commissioned by early in the year 2018,” he stated.

His comments came as he explained that to date, over 1 000 households and businesses have had such systems connected to the grid. This, he said, is a clear demonstration that success can be achieved in that area, just as the country has reaped success with solar water heaters which has a penetration rate in excess of 34 per cent. (JRT)

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