Over the next year, a number of Public Service Vehicles (PSV) and taxi operators will be using some form of renewable energy to power their vehicles.
This view was shared by Chairman of the Alliance Owners of Public Transport (AOPT) Roy Raphael, who told Barbados TODAY that the association was researching all options in order to transform the transportation sector here into a fully green energy-based one. He expects about 15 per cent of the PSVs should be green energy compliant.
“We did meet with our counterparts in Trinidad and Tobago last night, and we would have discussed the possibility of doing a trial programme with their CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) vehicles… We believe in Barbados we need to take the opportunity to identify other ways in which we can look at renewable energy for our vehicles.
“It’s costing us basically – with some operators of 14-seaters – between $150 to $175 per day in fuel. I suspect with the cap on we may revert to a cost of around $150 or below for a full tank. Though we are grateful, I still believe that we need to look towards renewable energy,” he said.
Raphael admitted that though the switch to a renewable power source for PSV and taxi operators would save owners thousands of dollars on fuel costs in the long-run, the initial investment needed to transform current vehicles into modern power sources is currently too high without outside investment.
Despite the financial constraints, the association has been cooperating for some time with the Barbados Light and Power on a pilot project to test the feasibility of having more electric PSVs and taxis on the island’s roads.
“The issue now with the electric vehicle is the fact that a lot of our operators cannot transition to electric vehicles because it is a costly venture. We already started discussions with the Barbados Light and Power on the possibility of doing a pilot project with us, on a taxi, a ZR as well as a minibus.
“Presently there are two buses in operation in the TAP Programme (Transport Augmentation Programme) that are fully electric and I believe that the association needs to explore other forms of energy as I said. As gas prices go up, this will continue to have a significant impact on our sector.”
Raphael said, given what the island would have experienced over the past several months, with Barbados being among the highest retailers of fuel, an even greater push towards more electric vehicles must be considered.
“We started this discussion more than three years ago, long before the COVID-19 situation came up, so we should be in a better position, so that when these things happen again, we will be able to move forward. Again, it has a lot to do with the government and how serious they are moving forward.
“I am hoping come next year we will not find ourselves in the same situation, but between now and next year we are hoping between 10 and 15 per cent of our vehicles shall move to some form of renewable energy.” (SB)
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