Anguilla’s Beth Barry attends important Renewable Energy Conference.

Beth Barry, Renewable Energy Coordinator, Anguilla Renewable Energy Office

Beth Barry, of the Anguilla Renewable Energy Office recently attended the 2nd Annual Sustainable Energy Forum in Montego Bay, Jamaica. She discovered that there is a growing commitment to Renewable Energy throughout the Caribbean and that there are many great opportunities and developments in the sector that Anguilla can benefit from. 

The conference was organized and funded by the Caribbean Renewable Energy Development Programme (CREDP) with support from German development bank, German Technical Cooperation, or GTZ.  The Forum took place as part of the 5th Annual Caribbean Environmental Forum and Exhibition and the 15th ReCaribe Waste Management Conference.  Beth’s attendance was made possible by the Overseas Territories Environment Programme (OTEP).

The two day Sustainable Energy Forum was attended by representatives from Jamaica, St. Lucia, Dominica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Guyana, Grenada, Antigua, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Nevis and Anguilla, as the sole UK Overseas Territory. 

Presentations focused on sustainable energy policy development, the particular challenges to alternative energy production faced by the region, mechanisms for growth such as carbon-trading programs and feed-in-tariff (FiT) schemes and the particular experiences of islands that are currently initiating renewable energy and efficiency programs such as Nevis and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. 

In a report to the National Energy Committee Beth Barry indicated that the stand-out presentation was offered by Mr. Ernie Stapleton, Permanent Secretary of Communications, Works, Public Utilities, Posts, Physical Planning, Natural Resources and Environment in the Nevis Island Administration.  Mr. Stapleton shared Nevis’ experiences in the renewable energy sector with a rapt group of listeners, all of whom were very much impressed by the substantial progress Nevis has been able to make over the last few years. 

Beth says “While most of those present were aware that Nevis has been pursuing development of its geothermal resources, many were surprised to learn that the island of just over 12,000 people is in fact pursuing a diversified renewable energy base by also implementing a wind farm.”
 
The Nevis Island Administration is working in partnership with Windwatt, a Canadian renewable energy company that focuses on small to medium size wind farms in the Caribbean.  They have already installed eight (8) 275kW wind turbines in the St. James area of Nevis’ north-east coast and expect to commission them during the month of July 2010. 

She went on to report that “this progress is very exciting for Anguilla, as there are real parallels between Anguilla and Nevis in terms of size and capacity, and also because plans to build a wind farm on Anguilla are already well developed.  Nevis’ successful installation of a wind farm that will contribute up to 12% of the island’s overall power is a great encouragement to Anguilla where we currently depend on costly fossil fuels for 100% of our electricity production. 

The fact that Nevis has chosen to develop their wind capacity even while they have local access to plentiful geothermal reserves is further encouragement that a diversified portfolio of renewable energy is an ideal to be worked towards.  Here in Anguilla we may not have geothermal, but we do have plentiful wind and solar resources which, correctly developed and managed, can largely free us from the expensive shackles of foreign oil and keep our energy dollars at home where they are desperately needed.”

The Energy Forum made it clear that there is currently tremendous movement among the islands on reducing the region’s dependence on fossil fuels and its overall energy expenditure.  It is a well known fact that the Caribbean pays some of the highest prices worldwide for electricity while we are home to some of the world’s richest renewable energy resources.  As a result, St. Vincent and the Grenadine’s Ministry of Energy is currently conducting a comprehensive audit of all government buildings in attempt to drastically reduce the government’s energy expenditure while locating opportunities to supply power from renewable sources.  

The Forum also underlined the need for small island developing states (SIDS) such as Anguilla to communicate among each other to raise awareness of the funding opportunities currently available from international development banks specifically for programs focusing on energy efficiency and renewable energies.