Green GOAL

Managing Director of the Barbados Light & Power Company Ltd, Roger Blackman, has reaffirmed that his company’s partnership with the Ministry of Education to ensure that the next generation is inspired to help Barbados achieve the national goal of 100% renewable energy by 2045, is invaluable.

He was speaking at a recent Media Resource Department and Barbados Light & Power prize-giving ceremony for Electricity and Renewable Energy Science Exposition BMEX 2017 at the company’s headquarters.

According to him, “The work being done in the schools is innovative, creative and aligns with Light & Power’s 100/100 vision for 100% Renewable Energy and 100% Electrification in Barbados by 2045.

“Reducing our dependence on imported oil with renewable energy will improve the economy, generate local jobs, stabilise energy costs, improve public health and environmental quality, and help to create a more reliable and resilient energy system,” he said.

“At Light & Power we firmly believe that by deliberately pursuing our 100/100 vision we are not only being good corporate citizens, but that we will create a legacy of sustainability based on innovative thinking.”
Blackman indicated, “I know some of you have heard about this aspirational vision of ours and have wondered what it really means and how it will work.

“It will work as we continue to collaborate with the Government of Barbados and entities like the Barbados Renewable Energy Association to pursue green or renewable sources of energy, such as our already existing 10 MW solar PV plant at Trents in St. Lucy. It will work as our customers, who already feed around 15 MW of solar energy into the grid, continue to increase their solar production. It will work as more green technologies like wind, biomass, waste-to-energy and battery storage are deployed in the coming months and years,” he explained.

“Because we are pursuing 100% electrification and understand that many renewable sources of energy are intermittent, we recognise the need to establish a cost effective method of storage so that clean energy can continue to power our grid when the sun sets or the wind subsides; and we are actively working towards deploying battery storage on the grid and in homes over the coming year.

“And as Light & Power phases out its use of fossil fuels over the next couple decades, so too will other major consumers of fuel. The transportation sector will also need to make the switch to electricity to improve the island’s environment and reduce the drain on our foreign reserves.

“Can you imagine how much cleaner our air will be when all of our vehicles are electric? How much quieter our streets will be without the rumbling of fossil fuel engines? The benefits of going green through electrification are numerous.”

“Light & Power will continue to invest in ways to make electricity generation cleaner and in getting that energy to market. We will also continue to invest in our communities because we believe that the best results are achieved through collaboration.

“This is exciting for us at Barbados Light & Power because they have excelled in the areas of electricity, renewable energy and innovation. I am pleased that for the second year in a row, BL&P worked with the Media Resource Department to host the Electricity and Renewable Energy Science Exposition for schools, which awards innovation and creative thinking at both the primary and secondary levels. I was even more pleased when our Senior Engineering Manager Roger Beckles, one of the judges for this year’s competition, described the variety of wind applications exhibited by the primary schools and the fusion of electronics with renewables by the secondary students,” the Managing Director highlighted.
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