Green move

The Government of Barbados and the Barbados Light and Power Limited have entered into an agreement which will help this country in its quest to become less dependent on fossil fuels.

The signing ceremony took place at Government Headquarters yesterday morning.

Senator, the Hon. Darcy Boyce, Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister with the responsibility for Energy, Telecommunications, Immigration and Invest Barbados, revealed that the objective of this initiative is to reduce electricity consumption – which was 5 352 MWh per year – and create savings in electricity bills of approximately US$0.9 million annually. Additionally, it is expected that this switch will also lower green house gas and carbon dioxide emissions, and significantly reduce energy costs.

“This is a very good commitment to the country’s economy because when we reduce the use of fossil fuels and reduce the importation of fossil fuels, we reduce the amount of foreign
exchange that we use,” he said.

He explained that cutting down on the foreign exchange spent would also help to boost the local economy.

Peter Sturesson, Head of Green Economy and Resilience Section, European Commission, expressed that there must be an embracing of energy efficiency because this sector has already been touted as one of the low hanging fruits when considering the transition to clean energy.

“This initiative sets out to retrofit, as you heard, more than 20 000 of the street lights currently using old technologies and will be replaced by modern LED lights, expecting to reduce the electricity demand of the country, and by extension, this will also assist in the reduction of fossil fuels and the emission of green house gasses which will play a part in lowering the carbon footprint of the island,” he said.