Caribbean
energy crisis: Seek alternatives or collapse
By
Wesley Gibbings
Trinidad
Guardian
Petroleumworld.com
06 18 06
Energy
expert Professor Al Binger of the Mona campus of
the University of the West Indies, would probably
describe himself as having turned blue in the face
talking about ignored opportunities for alternative
energy sources in the Caribbean.
As a former visiting Professor at
the Saga University Institute of Ocean Energy in
Japan, he would have, for example, witnessed and
participated in active research on a process known
as Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (Otec).
Otec is an energy technology that
converts solar radiation to electric power by using
the varying temperatures of the ocean—an asset
with which the region is abundantly endowed.
Though the commercial viability
of the process in the context of small, developing
island states is yet to be determined, the Jamaica-based
energy expert believes the Caribbean—oil and
gas rich T&T included—should take a closer
look at available alternatives that are both renewable
and environmentally-friendly.
It is his estimate, as an added
example, that “everyday, the sun gives us
the equivalent of 20,000 to 30,000 barrels of oil.”
With abundant sun and ocean resources, Binger does
not believe the region should be energy poor.
German energy expert Dr Thomas Scheutzlich,
who is currently in the region advising the Caribbean
Renewable Energy Development Programme (CREDP),
says that “despite the fact that Caribbean
countries are blessed with substantial wind, solar,
hydropower, biomass and geothermal resources, these
renewable energy sources provide less than three
per cent of the region’s commercial energy
demand.”
Acting executive director of the
Caribbean Environmental Health Institute (CEHI),
Patricia Aquing, told Business Guardian “it
is critical that the Caribbean countries identify
alternative energy options, given the dire predictions
about a global energy crisis exacerbated by rising
oil prices.”
“The impact on the region
could be a setback in economic growth and increasing
social pressures,” she said.
The point is not nowadays lost to
regional governments experiencing the mixed blessing
high oil prices have brought. T&T’s good
fortune has been the paradoxical curse of its Caricom
allies and is in part responsible for its ambivalent
relations with the rest of the region.
Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister,
Baldwin Spencer, responding to news that the Third
Caribbean Environmental Forum being held in his
country last week placed energy high on its agenda,
said high energy costs “threaten our social
and economic development.”
The search for alternatives, if
only on the basis of the current crisis, has apparently
been engaged in earnest.
CREDP, for example, treats the issues
as urgent especially in view of the fact that the
oil price crisis has virtually brought the region
to its knees.
Scheutzlich—a consultant attached
to the German technical assistance and aid agency
Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ)—said
“the ongoing price escalation on the world
oil market puts the economical, political and social
development in the Caribbean at risk and Caribbean
governments are actively seeking ways out of that
situation.”
According to Scheutzlich, “sky-rocketing
oil prices on the world market have had an immediate
and dramatic impact and increased the national import
bills for fossil fuels, resulting in further increases
of cost impact on the cost of electricity and transport.
“This is even more critical
for the Caribbean where electricity tariffs are
already among the highest in the world.”
He said the impact of the current
situation had negative consequences not only for
domestic and commercial consumers but for the region’s
largest economic sector and foreign exchange earner—
tourism.
“It is absolutely necessary
for the region to give serious thought, followed
by concrete action, to elaborate a consistent energy
policy and an implementation strategy for the sustainable
development of their country in terms of energy,”
Scheutzlich said.
“The absence of energy policies
in most of the Caribbean countries is felt in an
even more pronounced way in the crisis situation
like the one we are experiencing now.
“Governments and electric
utilities alike are forced to react on short notice
in an emergency-like manner rather than to act judiciously
on the basis of a solid sustainable energy sector
strategy, derived from a well-balanced mix of indigenous
energy sources, energy efficiency measures and imported
fuel as required.”
But Aquing believes the giant leap
required to convert concern into action will require
that “Caribbean governments…get serious
about investing in research and technology and establish
the necessary policy frameworks.”
There is hope that the CEHI-organised
CEF would have at least taken the process a small
step forward.
Trinidad
Guardian
Thursday, June 15th 2006
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©2006 Trinidad Guardian. All Rights Reserved.
