Former Central Bank Governor Dr DeLisle Worrell is concerned that Barbados is behind its renewable energy targets.
In his May 2021 economic report, the economist said five years ago, it was envisioned that Barbados would be at about 40 per cent renewable energy penetration by 2020, at least 75 per cent by 2025, at about 89 per cent by 2030, and 96 by 2035.
However, he said despite some progress over the years, the country was currently behind.
“Thanks to the Green Energy Bridge, the best that might be achieved by [2035] has been reduced to about 90 per cent. However, Barbados is currently behind schedule to achieve this less ambitious target. The projection was to have achieved 40 per cent use of renewables by now; currently we are lagging, at about 33 per cent,” said Worrell.
“What is more, we should by now have installed 20 megawatts of wind power and five megawatts from waste-to-energy, both now delayed. Action is needed on these projects to get the renewables strategy back on track,” he said.
Pointing out that the plan did not incorporate any assumptions about electric mobility, Worrell pointed out that the country continued to import cars, commercial vehicles and machinery fuelled by gasoline and diesel.
“Most household cooking is done with natural or petroleum gas. These will all be in use for decades to come,” he added.
He said while there were proven renewable energy technologies available to Barbados at reasonable costs, there was still several issues to be resolved, including where wind farms should be established.
“The wind farms were to be established onshore. Establishing offshore wind farms in the deep waters surrounding Barbados would be costly and problematic,” he said.
“Existing wind farms elsewhere are in shallow waters of the continental shelf of mainland countries and nearby islands. Barbadians will need to be convinced that onshore wind farms would enhance the landscape, much as windmills once did,” added Worrell.
“A second unresolved issue was the biofuels to be used as feedstock for the 25 megawatt of power that was envisaged from that source. That issue has now been rendered moot by the decision to install the 33 megawatt Clean Energy Bridge, which uses fossil fuel,” he said.
He also pointed out that the nature of the energy storage facility, crucial for the stability of the grid, was yet to be determined, adding that pump storage was recommended and it would provide cheaper power.
“However, the up-front costs are very high, and the feasibility and environmental impacts for Barbados have not been assessed. The alternative, grid-scale battery storage, is cheaper and quicker but more costly in the long run because of the shorter life of batteries,” he added.
He said a scenario that would have achieved a target of generating 96 per cent of electricity from renewable sources by 2035, would include 65 megawatts of solar power by 2020, to be increased to 120 megawatts by 2025, and up to 219 megawatts by the year 2035.
It would also include 219 megawatts of wind energy by 2035, 25 megawatts of biofuels, about 11 megawatts of waste-to-energy and some 5,000 megawatt hours of storage capacity. (MM)
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