Unlocking the Potential of Paradise
With the backdrop of the UN Sustainable goals in mind and the strong global cry for greater focus on sustainability, the clock is ticking on our ever-present crisis of climate control. Whether it be greater monsoon rains in India, worsening droughts in Africa, destructive tornados in the United States, freezing cold winters in Europe, or stronger and more frequent hurricanes in the Caribbean; globally, every country faces the damaging effects of unsustainable development and climate change.
Empirical data shows the Caribbean region has a miniature footprint regarding the consumption and production of fossil fuels and greenhouse gasses compared to all industrialised countries. However, it is one of the highest ranked regions which incurs the greatest risk due to climate change. Nonetheless the region remains one of the fewest nations uniquely prized with the keys to reduce their reliance of fossil fuels.
Regional Potential and Challenges
The regions potential lies in its geographic location and natural resources resulting from climatic conditions. Never has paradise been such a sought-after commodity for a non-tourism purpose.
Investment in renewable energy can significantly turn the tide for many islands both financially and economically. The renewable energy sector brings growth of technology, new skills and knowledge, job creation, and foreign investment. Renewable energy positively impacts various sectors such as manufacturing, hospitality, agriculture, and strengthens the region’s overall resilience. Environmentally, it reduces the region’s carbon footprint and contributes to the thrust towards the reduction of global warming.
The sun, sea and Atlantic trade winds are the natural generating energy sources which are the keys to freedom from fossil fuel; however, freedom comes at a cost. The cost of financing a green energy movement is the greatest challenge for the Caribbean. The lack of technology within the region, infrastructure which will be required, and policy changes are all barriers to regional green development. As a means of mitigation, governments engage in public private sector partnerships as a means of spreading the cost of investment. Overall, governments seek equilibrium in balancing their social responsibility to its people, improving their country’s financial and economic prosperity, while mitigating and managing risk. These nuances are all elements which hinders progress.
Types of Green Energy
Every island in the region has the potential to generate sustainable energy either via biomass, geothermal, solar or wind. Information gathered from CARICOM Sustainable Energy Roadmap and Strategy (C-SERMS) provides a wealth information on the following various options available to Caribbean islands, their benefits, and current initiatives.
Biomass Energy
Islands such as Belize, Jamaica and Guyana are great examples of the use of Biomass as an energy source. C-SERMS describes Biomass as the production of electricity via the use of biological materials such as agriculture crop residues, forestry waste, or municipal solid waste. These products can also be gasified and used similar to oil or natural gas.
Potential sources of biomass in the Caribbean are agriculture crops, residue from sugar cane (cane trash), coffee husk, rice straw, coconut shells and wood. Biomass has lower carbon emissions and can be used as an intermittent substitute when low wind or solar generation is available.
Geothermal Energy
Geothermal energy comes from heat reserves near the earth’s surface. Only a few Caribbean islands have this potential due to their volcanic topography, mainly those in the Lesser Antilles. According to C-SERMS these islands
“Possess significant untapped high-temperature geothermal resources. Development of this resource in member-states such as Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines could dramatically alter the energy balance not only for individual islands, but the region by allowing energy exports”.
Geothermal energy could transform the Caribbean from economically reliant states to an independent region with great trade and export capacity in energy.
Solar Energy
Solar Energy is sun light converted into electricity using photovoltaic panels. This energy can be used commercially, by households or sold and fed into a national electrical grid.
Solar energy is the most popular form of green energy in the region. It is mainly used as a form of heating in hot water systems with progress being made to use solar energy as a sole energy source for commercial and household use. The focus has been to prioritize the sector making it financially accessible and economically profitable supported by adequate policy. The solar water heating industry in Barbados has become the region’s success story for solar energy generation. Duty free allowances, tax incentives and strong policy has propelled the industry forward, with Barbados acquiring multimillion dollar loans from international agencies for continuous development.
Wind Energy
For the past few years, the region has been steadily moving towards implementing wind energy as a means of energy generation, at a country and for domestic use. Wind turbine projects have started to creep into the landscape of many Caribbean islands as the ability to harness the wind as an energy source has great potential.
The Wigton Wind Farm, the largest of Jamaica’s commercial wind farms has led to the instillation of 38.7 MW (megawatt) wind power plant and is the largest wind installation in CARICOM.
Ocean and Tidal Power
Ocean and tidal technology are huge steps the region can take towards renewable energy. The use of underwater turbines and other equipment to generate and capture energy is an innovative approach. It calls for a tremendous investment; one which most islands cannot afford and comes with a myriad of factors to consider.
Projects of this nature must consider the social, economic, and environmental impact on the region’s inhabitants both land and sea. The sea is used as means of recreation and a high source of income through fisheries. The possible impact on the region’s natural marine habit and its core makeup in the form of coral reefs must be studied. Additionally, the potential corrosion of equipment due to the high levels of salt content in the region’s waters questions the operating life span and cost of maintenance of such projects.
Nonetheless pilot projects in deep-sea cooling, as an energy source for the tourism sector in the Bahamas have started to reduce the demand for fossil fuels.
These and many more options are available to the region as it seeks to walk a green path.
The pace of development towards green energy production has been slow as the Caribbean navigates these new waters with many known and unknown obstacles. The required investment, infrastructure, cost, and risk associated with these projects are high. The social and environmental impact cannot be ignored, but the economical, technological, financial, and educational gains are tremendous. The region’s governments stand at a crossroad as they seek to find balance among these competing factors. Individually each island searches for their unique path towards sustainability but collectively we possess the master key to unlock the potential of paradise.
To learn more about the Caribbean’s initiatives and thrust towards Renewable Energy, check out the CARICOM Sustainable Energy Roadmap Strategy (C-SERMS) at https://c-serms.org/
