GEORGETOWN, Guyana, 2023 – Guyana is to implement a policy to tax companies that consume large amounts of electricity during peak hours.
This was announced by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo.
The move comes after the Guyana Power and Light Friday called for consumers to adopt conservation practises as the utility company registered its highest-ever electricity generation and demand.
In a statement, the company said that it recorded a peak demand of 182 megawatts compared to 154 megawatts for the corresponding period last year.
Jagdeo also on Friday explained that the over-peaking of electricity consumption was due in part to large electricity consumers who were previously self-generating and are now reconnecting to the national grid following the government’s decision to subsidise electricity costs.
The situation is compounded by the current high temperatures being experienced which have led to higher use of air conditioning units and fans.
“To cushion the effect of this situation, GPL is seeking the support and cooperation of our customers in adopting conscientious electricity conservation practises,” the power company said, urging consumers to use LEDs that consume “significantly less electricity and generate less heat”.
In addition, factories, manufacturers and other large customers are being asked to “manage their production schedules efficiently to conserve electricity” and housewives are urged to schedule laundry and ironing on one day instead of multiple days.
“Our demand now, in a single night, is 180 megawatts and we only have 174 megawatts of installed capacity, so you have, of necessity, to take some people off the grid,” Jagdeo told a gathering at the opening of the West Central Mall at Leonora, West Coast Demerara.
However, he said that the government will be investing in additional generation capacity of some 30 megawatts of power, expected before the end of the year.
He added that the 300-megawatt Wales gas-to-energy project that is to come on stream next year is expected to significantly improve electricity supply as well as reduce costs.
The vice president accused the former APNU+AFC Coalition administration of not making the required investments in the energy sector, citing the scrapping of the 165-megawatt Amaila Falls hydropower plant, which he claims has led to an increase in the spate of blackouts.
He also accused the coalition of not investing in new capacity during its 2015-2020 tenure.
Graphical representation of an under construction nuclear power plant. Amb Byron Blake writes: Positioned as an apt solution for a small island nation, SMRs are presented as a ‘burgeoning technology’” But, that burgeoning is all ‘on paper’, as it is still at the design stage.
In an article published in the Sunday Gleaner of July 30, titled ‘The Potential of Nuclear Energy as Part of the Future Energy Mix in Jamaica’, Oshane Hamilton explored the viability of integrating nuclear energy into Jamaica’s energy landscape. While his exposition on this nuclear prospect may be persuasive at first glance, a more critical evaluation is warranted.
Hamilton’s central argument for nuclear energy in Jamaica is predicated on the promise of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), an emerging design stage technology. Approximately 85 per cent of the article is dedicated to extolling the merits of nuclear power as a low-greenhouse-gas-emissions, highly available energy source, and emphasising the advantages of SMRs over conventional nuclear power plants.
Positioned as an apt solution for a small island nation, SMRs are presented as a “burgeoning technology”. But, that burgeoning is all “on paper”, as it is still at the design stage. In that regard, it is important to note Hamilton’s concession in his article’s closing lines that the deployment and validation of SMRs are yet to be realised.
FALLS SHORT
One key advantage highlighted by Hamilton is the small spatial footprint of SMRs. However, the article falls short of clarifying the required number of units to establish a substantial power-generating facility. Procuring upwards of 35 acres of suitable, flat, remote, and uninhabited land, and possibly several pieces, in Jamaica, could be a formidable challenge, given the island’s limited available space and topography.
The article seems to dismiss concerns about nuclear plant safety by arguing that SMRs are safer than conventional nuclear plants, which, in turn, are supposedly safer than alternative energy sources. But, to be safer than the alternative does not make a technology safe. Further, this perspective sidesteps the perpetual challenge of nuclear waste disposal and management, radiation hazards, and the long-term implications. One significant apprehension in Jamaica and the Caribbean pertains to nuclear material usage and the required safe disposal of waste. Considering the region’s high dependence on tourism and the Caribbean Sea’s extensive traffic, coupled with the presence of geographical parts of nuclear-armed states, a nuclear-free stance has been advocated and rigorously pursued.
DEFICIENCY
We do well to remind ourselves that, while illogical, parts of the US, France, and UK are within the Caribbean. These realities have underpinned historical efforts to establish the Caribbean as a nuclear-free zone and the region’s consistent protests against the trans-shipment of nuclear waste through the Caribbean Sea. The unbroken collaboration within the Caribbean underlines the importance of thorough consultation before any action to alter this stance.
A notable deficiency in Hamilton’s article lies in its treatment of renewable energy sources. In the brief segment addressing renewables, he acknowledges Jamaica’s abundant renewable resources, which could substantially diminish reliance on costly, environmentally detrimental fossil fuels. However, the subsequent section titled ‘Problems with Renewable Energy’ focuses disproportionately on the limitations of solar and wind power. While it is true that these sources are subject to natural variability, entail high initial costs, and require extensive land, a comparative analysis should encompass both financial and economic costs and benefits. It is crucial to recognise that the costs of these technologies have been falling, economic costs escalate with global climate change, and many of the financial costs are localised, thus reducing foreign currency demands. Moreover, innovative placement of wind turbines at sea or in remote areas, as well as efficient land use in solar project spaces, have demonstrably enhanced their overall viability.
Curiously, Hamilton’s article omits any mention of biomass-based energy, which holds, perhaps, the greatest potential in the Caribbean’s humid tropical environment. Biomass offers the added advantage of capturing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and sequestering them, while serving numerous other agricultural, economic, and environmental purposes. It is, for example, a means of enhancing the rediscovered importance of agriculture in national development.
In conclusion, the article has a discernible inclination to validate a preconceived notion. The exploration moved quickly to the advancement of viability. The rigour in interrogating an unproven technology and the consequent cautions are absent. The case of potential alternatives, in particular the alternative for which Jamaica is best endowed, is superficial. These shortcomings notwithstanding, Oshane Hamilton’s piece could serve as a valuable catalyst for serious deliberation on a subject with far-reaching policy implications for both Jamaica and the wider Caribbean. It is hoped that the opportunity will spark substantial discourse among stakeholders and policymakers before commitments are given and investments made which will bind Jamaican citizens and taxpayers.
Byron Blake is former assistant secretary general of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), based in Kingston, Jamaica.
JAMAICANS looking to make the shift to electric vehicles (EVs) are being urged by insurers to ensure they purchase the vehicles from a locally registered new car dealer or they may have issues getting them insured.
The issue came to light on Monday when an X (formerly Twitter) user posted that a friend bought an EV but could not get it insured.
The Jamaica Observer reached out to the person behind the post and was put in touch with Dr Dwight Robinson, a lecturer in the Department of Life Sciences at The University of the West Indies, Mona, who said he was the person being referred to.
Robinson told the Business Observer that in September last year he purchased an EV but was given what he calls “the shock of his life” when he tried to get it insured with his insurer, Insurance Company of the West Indies (ICWI).
“I was very surprised that when I went to them to get insurance, after having two other cars insured with them, I was told that I can’t get comprehensive insurance for the EV and so I had to take third-party insurance on that one,” Robinson recalled in an interview with the Business Observer.
He said when he asked for an explanation about the challenges and the risks associated with owning an EV, which would exclude it from being comprehensively insured, he was told that the company just doesn’t insure EVs comprehensively.
“They didn’t even attempt to give me an explanation, only just telling me that they don’t insure EVs comprehensively and that it is just company policy,” he continued. Robinson said he has subsequently lost the vehicle to thieves and questioned how the Government policy to drive EV ownership would fare if owners can’t get comprehensive insurance for them, especially given that most people would have to borrow money to purchase a car, while most banks will not lend the money unless the vehicle is comprehensively insured.
“I had to find a way to finance it myself because I couldn’t get it comprehensively insured,” Robinson highlighted. “I can’t see how persons who wish to make this shift to help to create a more green environment can do so if they don’t have the resources to buy the car upfront,” he added.
Robinson said the issue is something the Government should “look on more than the 10 per cent duties to nudge insurance companies to insure [EVs] comprehensively”.
The Business Observer contacted Paul Lalor, president of ICWI, about the matter, who, after checks, said the company would only refuse to insure an EV under two conditions, once the other risk factors are accounted for: if it is a car imported by an individual or entity that is not one of the registered new car dealers or if it is an imported used EV.
“The rule is, once the car comes from a registered local dealer we will insure it comprehensively,” Lalor told the Business Observer in an interview Tuesday. He reeled off a list of new car dealers, including ATL, Stewarts Auto, Magna Motors, and Toyota, who either sell EVs or have announced an intention to sell EVs, adding that ICWI insures the EVs they sell.
“Electric cars are a learning experience for all of us (especially the insurance sector),” he added. “What we can’t guarantee is the cost of repairs. If the car gets into a collision we don’t have any idea how they are going to get it fixed.”
Lalor said there may be other insurers who are braver than ICWI, however, “As the market develops, I am sure you will see us getting more and more comfortable with insuring these cars.”
When that time comes, he said, insurers may even extend to insuring second-hand EVs that may come into the country as they feel more comfortable with repairs.
“What we are not comfortable doing yet, because we don’t know enough about it, and we have not gotten the experience from it, is to take a second-hand domestic out of Japan that comes to Jamaica used and then gets into an accident. We don’t know where we are going to get the parts and so will not insure it,” he said.
Lalor even said if the car at the time of importation is brand new, but not brought in by one of the new car dealers, the motorist will find issues getting it insured at ICWI.
“Once it comes in from a dealer, and you are buying it brand new, once it’s bought that way, we will insure it comprehensively. We will, however, not insure a brand new EV that is imported by anyone or entity other than one of the local new car dealers. There may be other companies that do, but we want to trust the training that the dealers have before they bring the cars in,” he said as justification for the policy.
He said he knows for example that the ATL Group will be selling the Chinese-made EV brand BYD and that their “guys have been to China to learn how to fix the cars and people from BYD have also been here to train them. So that’s what we are trusting”.
Lalor had a final recommendation for those who want to own an EV.
“We are recommending to people buying EVs that they buy from the local dealers initially and then that way, from ICWI’s perspective, we can insure it comprehensively.”
He told the Business Observer to check with Robinson to ascertain if the EV he sought insurance for was bought locally from a new car dealer or imported by himself. Lalor added that he believes the client’s insurance request was turned down because the car was imported by Robinson and not bought through a local dealer. Efforts to get clarity from Robinson failed, with calls to his cellphone going unanswered.
The Government of Jamaica has finally invited bids from investors for the provision of an additional 100 megawatts of renewable energy capacity, ending a yearslong wait by the sector.
It comes amid refreshed plans and a more ambitious goal to achieve a 50 per cent target for renewables by 2030 in a remix of the energy grid. The requests for proposal have been issued through the Generation Procurement Entity or GPE.
“This procurement signifies a step toward a cleaner and more sustainable energy future for Jamaica,” GPE said in the tender document.
The 100MW to be supplied would grow renewables from 187MW or 12 per cent of Jamaica’s total electricity grid to 287MW or about one-third of the grid.
To hit the 50 per cent target, renewables would need to grow further to around 400MW, based on the current size of the total electricity grid. The overall capacity stands at 789MW, according to the latest disclosures in filings by grid operator Jamaica Public Service Company.
Currently, the main sources of renewable energy are in the form of wind at 101MW, solar at 58MW, and hydro at 28MW.
The investors currently being sought will be required to build, own and operate the new renewables power generating plants. GPE will allow bids for one energy source or hybrid combinations.
The proposals due by February 1, 2024 may or may not include storage which are batteries that hold the power generated during peak periods for use during low periods, such as at night for solar.
Successful bidders will supply the national grid with electricity under contract known as PPAs or power purchase agreements with monopoly distributor JPS. They will also be to pay a deposit upfront, the size of which will be determined by the scope of their project.
Projects may vary in size from 5MW to 50MW of net capacity.
“As of the execution date of the power purchase agreement, the company shall furnish a construction security deposit for an amount equivalent to US$100,000 per MW of the complex,” said the GPE document.
The last time Jamaica tendered for renewable energy supplies was in 2015 for 37MW of capacity. Prior to that, in 2012 the government sought investors to develop 115MW of renewable power but only assigned 78MW in total to three successful bidders, including Eight Rivers which built a large solar farm in Westmoreland.
“No comment,” said Eight Rivers principal Angella Rainford when asked if her company would bid this time around.
Rainford diversified her firm away from sole reliance on Government projects, during the eight-year hiatus. Through a company called Soleco, she and her partners supply solar solutions for large and industrial clients.
“The market is looking at both strategies – distributed power and at the utility-scale,” she said regarding how renewable firms now assess business opportunities.
Most of Jamaica’s energy is generated from liquefied natural gas and oil, which make up 88 per cent of the energy grid. Renewables account for the other 12 per cent.
“This 12 per cent can be further divided into wind power at 6.0 per cent, solar power at 3.0 per cent, and hydro power at 3.0 per cent,” stated GPE.
However, it didn’t say how closer the 100MW would take Jamaica towards the target of 50 per cent.
“We will not make it to the target of 50 per cent of the island’s electricity coming from renewables by 2030 at this rate,” said one renewable firm operator, who explained that timelines between the release of new requests for proposals make the target of 50 per cent unlikely.
“If we are going to have to wait five to six years between each renewable capacity addition, then 50 per cent by 2030 is just not going to happen,” the person said.
Both the GPE and JPS documents reference the renewable capacity provided by independent power providers, amounting to 156MW. It grows to 187MW, once the 31MW of renewables owned by JPS is added to the mix.
Renewable projects once fell under the ambit of the Office of Utilities Regulation but that function was transferred several years ago to the Generation Procurement Entity, which was created under the amended Electricity Act of 2015.
WASHINGTON, United States, (AFP) – The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) executive board approved the disbursement of around US$866 million for Jamaica on Thursday as part of two loan programmes designed to strengthen the country’s economy against multiple shocks.
“Important progress has been made on the fiscal reform agenda,” IMF Deputy Managing Director Antoinette Monsio Sayeh said in a statement announcing the completion of the first review into the agreements signed in March.
That progress includes reform of the Caribbean nation’s public wage structure and improvements to its fiscal policy framework.
Jamaica’s economy has bounced back following a challenging period during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The IMF said in March it expects the country’s real GDP growth reached around four percent last year, but warned of risks ahead from a range of factors, including the lingering impact of the war in Ukraine.
On Thursday, the IMF board made available around US$611 million under an agreement it has previously said is designed “to provide insurance against risks from higher commodity prices, a global slowdown, tighter-than-envisaged global financial conditions, and new COVID outbreaks.”
A further US$255 million was made available Thursday under a second loan agreement aimed at strengthening Jamaica’s resilience to climate change and better-preparing it for decarbonisation and the transition to a greener economy.
The Jamaican authorities have been “advancing their ambitious climate policy agenda to increase resilience to climate change and green the economy,” Sayeh said.
After Hurricane Maria devastated the island, residents launched community-based solar projects to keep the lights on. Activists call it an “energy insurrection.”
Hurricane Maria knocked down power lines across Puerto Rico. Some remote villages were without electricity for nearly a year.
On Sept. 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico and devastated the island’s aging and inefficient power grid.
Air conditioning couldn’t work. Water couldn’t be pumped to higher floors. Hospitals couldn’t maintain lifesaving machinery. Diesel and propane generators helped, but they’re costly and unwieldy and pump noxious fumes into the air.
It would be late November before more than half the island’s 3.4 million residents had electricity. And some remote areas were without power for nearly a year.
Even in the absence of natural disasters, though, outages, rolling blackouts and appliance-frying surges are a daily reality. This ongoing energy crisis has forced residents to evolve quickly on renewables, especially solar power: The US territory has more rooftop solar installations per capita than all but six US states. (And that doesn’t include smaller systems that aren’t hooked up to the grid.)
Puerto Rico is especially well positioned to embrace solar: Studies suggest it receives enough sunlight to meet its residential needs more than four times over.
“Everyone should be keeping their eye on Puerto Rico,” said Lauren Rosenblatt, co-founder of Barrio Electrico, which provides solar energy to low- and moderate-income households on the island.
“What the [rest of the] US is going to see is that there are a lot more options for resiliency and sustainability,” Rosenblatt told CNET. “Not every solution that works in Puerto Rico will work in your community, but they’re generating myriad solutions. We’re lucky to have them leading the way.”
Climate change is putting energy infrastructure to the test all over the US, and the challenges Puerto Ricans face — and the solutions they’re finding — could be a glimpse at the future for those far from the island.
Here’s what Puerto Rico can teach us about energy resilience, the benefits of solar and the role of community groups, utilities and government in reaching a sustainable future.
Solar power is critical to climate resiliency
Climate change is making hurricanes more extreme and destructive. Scientists at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences found that, from 1850 to 2020, human-generated greenhouse gases led to an increase of more than 1 degree Celsius in global average surface temperature.
That warming trend “will lead to yet further increases in North Atlantic hurricane season extreme rainfall rates and accumulated amounts,” the researchers wrote in the journal Nature Communications in April 2022.
As the intensity of severe weather incidents increases, so will the frequency of power outages. Solar panels, though, are designed to withstand hurricane-force winds: When Hurricane Maria hit, a VA hospital in San Juan remained fully operational while others lost power, thanks to its solar setup.
Javier Rúa-Jovet is chief policy officer for the Solar and Energy Storage Association of Puerto Rico, a regional trade association. After Maria, his home in a middle-class part of San Juan was without power for six weeks.
Relying on a 17-kilowatt generator for power, he said, was traumatizing.
“My whole nervous system was in tune with the noises it made,” Rúa-Jovet told CNET. “Every day I was afraid the generator was going to die.”
By the time Fiona made landfall last year, though, Rúa-Jovet had connected a Tesla Powerwall to his rooftop array and was able to maintain full power. Now, whenever there’s an outage, the system kicks in automatically, often in less than a second.
“Sometimes you see the lights flicker when there’s an outage,” he said. “But usually you don’t know until you get a notification on your phone.”
Crises can bring opportunities for innovation
A worker installs solar panels in Puerto Rico
Before Hurricane Maria, there were maybe 9,000 rooftop solar setups in Puerto Rico, according to Rúa-Jovet, and most weren’t connected to batteries.
“After Maria, solar is basically universally installed with storage,” he said. “It was really a paradigm-shifting event.”
New installations have grown from a few hundred a month to more than 3,000.
In January 2022, there were 42,000 homes and businesses with solar-plus-battery projects in Puerto Rico, more than eight times the number before Irma and Maria.
This summer, that number is nearing 80,000.
That’s still only a fraction of the close to 1.2 million households in Puerto Rico, but the desire to move beyond the grid is growing exponentially.
Solutions have to be cost-effective
In Puerto Rico, power isn’t just unreliable, it’s expensive. Residential electricity averaged 24.17 cents per kilowatt-hour in May, compared with 16.14 cents in the continental US. The cost of importing petroleum, natural gas and coal means electricity can be up to twice as much as it is on the mainland.
Solar is more reliable and cheaper in the long run, but installing a rooftop system still runs between $10,000 and $13,000. That’s a steep price in a territory where the median household income is just under $22,000.
Financing options grew substantially after Hurricane Maria. Rúa-Jovet said solar companies like Sunrun and Sunnova offer terms that enable residents with a credit score of about 640 to get a rooftop setup without any upfront costs.
Instead of monthly electricity bills, he said, approved customers pay roughly the same amount in loan payments “for power that is clean and doesn’t go away.”
And unlike energy costs, the loan rates are fixed.
Vulnerable populations can’t be left behind
While Sunnova and Sunrun offer solar loans, there are still many in the commonwealth who can’t afford financing. According to the US Census Bureau, 40.5% of Puerto Ricans live in poverty, more than twice the 19.7% poverty level in Mississippi, the poorest state in the US.
“There is a place for for-profit companies like Sunnova and Sunrun to offer [financing], but it’s not a silver bullet,” said Andrew Hermann, executive director of the Monte Azul Foundation, a nonprofit focused on energy and food equity. “We’re going to need a lot of different solutions.”
On July 31, the US Department of Energy announced more than $450 million was being allocated for distributed solar and battery storage in some of Puerto Rico’s most vulnerable neighborhoods.
Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said her agency was committed to expanding access to clean energy in Puerto Rico, “especially for the communities most at risk.”
The funds will enable up to 40,000 setups to be installed in low-income areas hit with frequent and prolonged outages. (Households with energy-dependent devices like electric wheelchairs and at-home dialysis machines are also being targeted.)
“That’s the best population to direct incentives toward,” Rúa-Jovet said. “It’s very targeted money that will help people that are basically outside of the financing market.”
The investment is part of the $1 billion Puerto Rico Energy Resilience Fund established by the Biden administration to strengthen the island’s grid and help it reach its clean energy goals. Further investments will be directed at community solar projects, microgrids and grid modernization, according to the Department of Energy.
Community-based solutions can lead the way
A private US-Canadian consortium, Luma Energy took over responsibility for maintaining and improving the island’s utility grid in June 2021. Its predecessor, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, or PREPA, was a government monopoly that filed for bankruptcy following decades of mismanagement, negligence and corruption.
Luma inherited a decrepit system, but it has been blamed for failing to improve service and future-proof the grid.
“Its performance so far has been, in the best case, deficient, and in the worst, dismal,” said Sergio Marxuach, policy director for the Puerto Rican think tank Center for New Economy.
Luma didn’t respond to a request for comment.
On the ground, residents aren’t waiting for Luma — or lawmakers — to provide solutions. In rural areas, grassroots groups are constructing standalone solar networks, known as microgrids, to ensure hospitals, schools and fire stations have power.
In Caguas, about 20 miles south of San Juan, donated solar panels were attached to the roof of an abandoned office building, transforming it into a supply center that doesn’t rely on electricity from the utility.
“There are many communities — small communities — that are really making big waves and developing solar-plus-storage microgrids,” Hermann said.
There’s been so much interest, he added, “because so many people are just fed up with the current system. These communities are coming together to really choose a different path.”
Arturo Massol-Deyá, executive director of the community environmental group Casa Pueblo, calls the movement an “energy insurrection.”
Casa Pueblo has been the driving force behind community solar in Adjuntas, a mountainside town of about 18,000. In an area where some people were without power for 11 months after Maria, the organization was able to install 700 solar panels and provide 220 kilowatts to more than a dozen businesses downtown. Second-hand EV batteries donated by automaker Rivian provide a megawatt of battery storage and allow Puerto Rico’s first community-owned microgrid to provide power independent of the grid for up to 10 days.
Casa Pueblo worked with nonprofits like the Honnold Foundation and the Community Solar Energy Association of Adjuntas to fund the $2 million project. And while the merchants pay for the energy they use, their rates are significantly lower than Luma’s. Profits are used for maintenance and to finance rooftop solar installations for low-income residents.
The Monte Azul Foundation is working to develop a smaller microgrid in Maricao, a village of less than 5,000 residents that sees outages several times a week. It’ll only generate between 100 and 150 kilowatts, but it will power a pharmacy, a gas station and the only bank in Maricao.
“When we don’t have power, we lose access to ATMs and all our financial services because the bank has no backup power,” Hermann said.
But support from the government and utilities is essential
While the federal government has allocated more than $30 billion to help Puerto Rico recover from Maria and the 2020 earthquakes, critics say not enough is being done to develop energy resiliency.
In 2019, the legislative assembly passed the Puerto Rico Energy Public Policy Act, or Act 17, which set an ambitious deadline to use 100% renewable energy by 2050.
“Puerto Rico’s Green New Deal,” as Rúa-Jovet called it, sets a benchmark of 40% of electricity from renewables by 2025 and 60% by 2040. Right now, though, solar, wind and other clean energy sources generate only about 3% of the island’s electricity. The remaining 97% come from fossil fuel-fired power plants.
In February 2022, the government-appointed Puerto Rico Energy Bureau conditionally approved 18 renewable power plants projected to produce 884 megawatts by the end of next year.
That’s supposed to boost the share of electricity from renewables to 23%, but that’s still short of Act 17’s 40% goal. And environmentalists are suing to halt the projects because, they say, the plants will be built on agriculturally valuable land instead of rooftops, parking lots and landfills.
Regulators have also been accused of targeting recovery funds for fossil fuel projects. They even floated the idea of taxing solar users up to 4.6 cents per kilowatt-hour to pay down PREPA’s $8.2 billion debt and discourage people from defecting from the grid.
Neither Luma nor the government in San Juan has actively opposed community microgrid projects, activists say. But they haven’t done much to help, either.
“There isn’t a whole lot of government involvement in rural mountain communities to begin with,” Hermann said. “They’re forgotten about in many ways.
Virtual power plants can take stress off the grid
In addition to keeping homeowners’ power on during a blackout, solar-plus-battery systems that are connected to the grid can send energy back to the network during high-usage periods.
Using connected households or businesses to meet grid needs is commonly referred to as a virtual power plant, or VPP.
Luma is enlisting 6,000 customers for a pilot VPP program expected to launch this fall. When high-demand situations arise, the utility will access battery reserves from the participants, who are credited for the energy they provide.
“This program is being developed to address those days when Luma has a shortfall in energy generation,” said Michael Juarbe, Sunnova’s senior manager for government affairs. “What’s very important to understand is that this is an opt-in program — we’re not forcing anyone to participate, and people can set how much they distribute.”
The technology is there to do a much larger VPP network, Juarbe said, “but we know that you have to take slow steps.”
Should it be successful, Juarbe could see a VPP generating a gigawatt of energy for Puerto Rico.
“We could replace a power plant based on dirty fuels and provide clean energy consistently to the grid,” he said. “In the short term, we’re talking about avoiding outages. But long term, I think virtual power plants are the future.”
Decentralize the power supply
Puerto Rico’s largest power plants are along the southern coast. But the most populous areas, like San Juan, are in the north. Transmission lines that cross remote mountain ranges are vulnerable to hurricane winds and take a long time to repair.
“Our energy paradigm is still a centralized system based on imported fossil fuels,” Rúa-Jovet said. “That’s the opposite of resiliency. If you hit one part, everything goes down.”
The solution, he added, “is to have systems that are widely distributed, with lots of redundancies.”
Solar-plus-storage microgrids “can decouple and operate independently of the main grid during blackouts,” according to a position paper from the Rocky Mountain Institute, a clean energy think tank.
“We champion a highly decentralized, bottom-up grid approach that starts with personal microgrids, aggregated microgrids, then community microgrids — all the way to municipal or even larger solar and storage systems,” the group said.
Puerto Rico’s present is the mainland’s future
Puerto Rico has been grappling with an energy crisis for years. But it’s only recently that other parts of the US have realized how fragile their energy grid is.
BCIC has launched a new hurricane insurance policy just in time for the hurricane season. They have partnered with Yokahu, an insure-tech company from the United Kingdom, to create a new hurricane insurance product for homeowners and renters.
Reinsurers have left the Caribbean reducing the capacity for insurance companies in Jamaica to take on new customers. With this and other recent developments in the property insurance market, homeowners and renters have seen their premiums skyrocket.
BCIC has launched its new product to provide homeowners and renters with affordable and hassle-free insurance all year round, but especially during the hurricane season. This new product is 100 per cent online and will be sold directly to customers through the BCIC website. Customers can purchase it for as little as US$60 and premiums go up to US$750.
The process for payouts is much different from what one typically expects from an insurance company. There is no claims process or need to show proof of damage to receive a payment. Once the strength of a hurricane rises to approximately a category three or above with wind speeds reaching 74 mph, the customer is automatically paid. Payouts for customers begin at US$160 and go as high as US$10,000.
Many homeowners have found that they are unable to buy home insurance because local insurers are not taking new customers. Others have seen the cost of home insurance go up well past their ability to pay. This product is designed to be an affordable policy for those who are unable to get or afford home insurance. It can also act as an add-on to an existing homeowner’s policy or cover for renters who want their belongings protected.
Managing director of BCIC, Peter Levy, is excited for the potential of the product to help Jamaicans feel like they won’t be ‘left out in the cold’, this hurricane season.
“Hurricanes can strike with unimaginable force, leaving behind a trail of destruction and wreaking havoc on homes and properties. Having your home damaged, which for most people is the greatest monetary investment they will make in their lifetime, is very scary. In the event that someone’s home is damaged, the stress of having to deal with that, compounded by the stress of what can sometimes be a lengthy claims process, we think, is too much to place on the shoulders of our customers” he said.
Levy believes that with property insurance becoming increasingly expensive, protection for one’s home or belongings is less accessible. He said this is an inclusive product that helps to ‘cushion the blow’ of premiums in a property insurance market that is out of reach.
“Hurricanes are not an imagined threat in Jamaica. We have decades of evidence showing the consequences of being ill-prepared for hurricane season. Our approach to the market has led us to create a product that is for everyone, and we are proud to be able to have a product that puts the customer first,” said Levy.
Throughout history, the evolution of energy technologies has influenced the location of production.
At the onset of the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth century, factories were typically located near fast-moving rivers or under windmills because they needed to be near their energy source. The steam engine’s introduction enabled firms to establish their bases anywhere coal could be economically shipped.
Oil, which was even cheaper to transport, further loosened the ties between a firm’s location and its energy source. With the development of electricity, power could be easily distributed across vast areas and used wherever there was an electrical outlet, transforming the structure and layout of manufacturing plants.
So how will the clean-energy transition affect the location and design of future manufacturing? A key feature of most renewable sources is that the energy they produce is very costly to transport beyond the local electricity grid. At present, sunny regions can generate electricity for under US$20 per megawatt hour, which is equivalent to oil priced at US$34 per barrel – less than half the current market price of crude.
By contrast, the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act, US President Joe Biden’s signature climate-change bill, provides subsidies for companies converting renewable energy into green hydrogen at US$3 per kilogramme of hydrogen, which is equivalent to US$142.2 per barrel of oil – double the current oil price. In other words, storing solar energy in transportable molecules is very expensive. Consequently, it is more efficient to use it where it is produced.
Given these high transportation costs, an effective global decarbonisation process would position energy-intensive industries near cheap sources of green energy. Installing solar panels in sunny areas, and windmills in places with strong and consistent winds, could significantly reduce global demand for land and materials. A recent paper, for example, finds that the steel industry’s future may lie in sunny tropical locations with strong onshore winds and near iron ore deposits.
But energy-intensive industries are currently located far from these ideal spots. To facilitate efficient decarbonisation, it is essential to relocate them. But where? It would take countries several decades to decarbonise their electrical grids, and even countries with abundant renewable resources would find it very costly to decommission their existing fossil-fuel capacity because that investment must be paid for, whether or not the facilities remain operational.
These costs will likely slow down the energy transition in the manufacturing sector. But the process could be accelerated if countries with abundant, cheap clean-energy sources develop green industrial parks. This would offer a viable alternative for industries seeking to reduce their emissions through relocation. These parks would complement measures designed to discourage emissions, such as cap and trade schemes, carbon pricing, and the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. While these policy interventions aim to lower emissions by increasing costs, green industrial parks would provide a more affordable path.
To be sure, as with all regulations, countries and companies might try to game the system by reallocating their existing clean energies to green industrial parks while increasing the share of non-renewable energy elsewhere in the economy, resulting in no net emissions reductions. Given this risk, green industrial parks must meet certain criteria.
First, their establishment must be based on new sources of clean energy, not merely repurposing existing capacity. Second, to prevent non-emission-reducing reallocations, every country must still abide by its previously announced nationally determined contributions under the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
Third, for the sake of efficiency and stability, it would be useful to connect the new green zones to national electricity grids. But this should be conditional on the zones becoming significant net exporters of clean energy to the grid to ensure that any grey energy they might occasionally use for stability purposes would be offset by the export of clean energy.
Establishing green industrial parks and their clean-energy resources would not necessarily require government funding. Such real estate and energy investments should be profitable and thus privately financed.
But this does not mean that governments should play no role in their establishment. On the contrary, to become competitive, these zones must also strive to compete on the availability of other production inputs, such as human resources, local supply chains, research and development capabilities, logistics, and more.
Governments could accelerate the process by introducing effective green-energy regulations, facilitating right-of-way provisions for transmission lines, adjusting zoning regulations, building arterial infrastructure, and investing in urban development and human resources.
Green industrial parks would facilitate the global relocation of energy-intensive industries, hasten the development of renewable energy in resource-rich regions, and encourage governments to go beyond their individual decarbonisation targets. They would also expedite the global reduction of emissions in manufacturing by making it financially viable to relocate early to regions that can produce cheap green energy. Lastly, they could spare the world millions of tons of solar panels, wind turbines, cables, and batteries by placing these capital goods in locations where, thanks to natural conditions, they can be most productive.
A net-zero world cannot be achieved by relying on efforts by industries in each country to reduce emissions on their own. Current industrial locations reflect our carbon-based energy system and its low transportation costs.
Relocating those activities is crucial to completing the energy transition, and green industrial zones could serve as a practical way of getting it done.
– Ricardo Hausmann, a former minister of planning of Venezuela and former chief economist at the Inter-American Development Bank, is a professor at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and director of the Harvard Growth Lab.
Earlier in January, Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke announced that the Jamaican Government is removing the duty on European vehicles imported into the country.
This action stemmed from the economic partnership agreement (EPA) signed between Jamaica and the European Union (EU) back in 2008. The EPA, a free trade agreement aimed at fostering trade and investment between the two regions, has paved the way for a surge in accessibility and competition within Jamaica’s automotive market.
Specifically, for Chapter 87 goods, which include motor vehicles, duty breakdowns have been established to facilitate imports. For instance, motor vehicles with engine capacities exceeding 1000cc but not exceeding 1500cc, imported by individuals using gasoline, which previously attracted an import duty of 20 per cent now attract a 0 per cent import duty rate under the EPAs, while the General Consumption Tax (GCT) remains at 15 per cent and the Special Consumption Tax on Fuel (SCTA) at 20 per cent.
In the case of electric vehicles imported by individuals, with an electric motor for propulsion and manufactured within the past three years, a preferential import duty rate of 0 per cent is applied. Similarly, the GCT remains at 0 per cent, exempted under the GCT Act, while the SCTA stands at 0.5 per cent.
The Jamaica Customs Agency (JCA) has published a guide on the requirements to qualify for duty exemption, which can be found on its website:
The vehicles must be manufactured or made in any of the EU member states or the United Kingdom.
The vehicles must meet the requisite origin criteria.
Vehicles with a date of report prior to January 1, 2023, are not eligible to access preferential rates of 0 per cent under the EPAs.
A valid, original Movement Certificate EUR.1 must be submitted with your import declaration or a declaration given by the exporter on an invoice, a delivery note, or any other commercial document which describes the products concerned in sufficient detail to enable them to be identified.
Vehicles must be directly consigned from the exporting EU/UK member state to Jamaica.
Speaking with Our Today, Lynvalle Hamilton, president of Jamaica Used Car Dealers Association (JUCDA), said, “While there are some dealers who are seeing benefits from the duty changes, not a wide selection of the used car dealers opt to import European vehicles due to the high prices coming out of the UK, the better option for them is usually vehicles coming out of Japan.”
Christina Taylor, group marketing manager at ATL Automotive Group confirmed with Our Today, that ATL has not yet obtained units that benefit from the duty removal.
Taylor was mum, however, as to when these new vehicles would arrive in the country.
While she was unable to reveal specific sales information, she confirmed that among motor vehicles where the removal of duty under the EPA applies, the savings will be passed on to customers.
Summers are getting hotter than ever, shattering all-time high temperature records, straining the energy grid and damaging critical infrastructure.
Heat waves also are coming to include another increasingly dangerous element: overnight temperatures that don’t cool down enough to offer sufficient reprieve from oppressive heat, particularly for people without access to air conditioning.
“Most people don’t realize that hot nighttime temperatures have been outpacing daytime temperature increases across most populated regions worldwide in recent decades,” Columbia University’s Data Science Institute postdoctoral research scientist Kelton Minor told CNN.
“We think it’s because as the days grow warmer, there is more moisture in the air that traps the heat,” the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health’s executive director, Lisa Patel, told CNN. “During the day, that moisture reflects the heat, but at night, it traps the heat in.”
Increasing nighttime heat is even more common in cities because of the urban heat island effect, in which metro areas are significantly hotter than their surroundings.
Places with a lot of asphalt, concrete, buildings and freeways absorb more of the sun’s heat than areas with ample parks, rivers and tree-lined streets. At night, when temperatures are supposed to cool down, the retained heat is released back into the air, said University of Washington climate and health expert Kristie Ebi.
Areas with a lot of green space – with grass and trees that reflect sunlight and create shade – are cooler on summer’s hottest days, she said.
“Many cities put together cooling shelters, but people have to know where they are, how to get to them and what hours they operate,” Ebi told CNN, noting city officials must rethink urban planning to consider climate change.
“It’s going to take a while for trees to grow, but we need tree-planting programs focusing on places that are particularly vulnerable, making sure that city planning takes into account that we’re heading into a much warmer future.”
Nighttime should be when our bodies get a break from the heat, Patel said. But with the climate crisis, it’s becoming less likely to happen. Heat-related deaths could increase sixfold by the end of the century due to warmer nighttime temperatures, unless planet-warming pollution is significantly curbed, a 2022 study in the Lancet Planetary Health found.
The climate crisis is already affecting people’s ability to sleep, said Minor, co-author of a study that found people living in warmer climates lose more sleep for each degree of temperature increase. It was published in May in the journal One Earth.
“We all know what it’s like to try to fall asleep on a hot night – it’s uncomfortable,” Patel said. “We often lose sleep. It is estimated that by the end of the century, we could lose about two days of sleep per year, and it will be worse for people without access to air conditioning.”
At its most extreme, when a human body does not get the chance to recover – typically at night – heat stress can progress to heat stroke, which is associated with confusion, dizziness and passing out, Patel explained.
People around the world are already losing roughly 44 hours of sleep every year on average due to warm nighttime temperatures during just the first part of the 21st century, Minor’s study estimated. He calls this “sleep erosion,” noting each person may lose up to 58 hours of sleep by the end of the century.
“People in our study did not appear to make up for lost sleep on hotter nights by napping during the day or by sleeping more during the days or weeks after,” Minor said. “In fact, they lost additional sleep over these periods due to a delayed temperature effect, possibly due to ambient heat being trapped indoors.”
And much like other social issues, the impacts don’t fall equally across communities, he said.
“For every degree of nighttime temperature rise, we found that the elderly lost over twice as much sleep as middle-aged adults, females lost slightly more sleep than males, and critically, residents of lower-middle-income countries lost three times as much sleep compared to people living in higher income countries,” Minor said.
Heat waves that go on for several days tend to be associated with more deaths as the body can no longer keep itself cool, Patel said.
And unless planet-warming pollution is curbed, the climate crisis is set to increase exposure to dangerous heat index levels by 50% to 100% in much of the tropics and by up to 10 times across much of the globe, according to a 2022 study published in Communications Earth & Environment.
“Living through a heat wave during the day can be like running a race,” Patel said. “We need a cool break to recover and recuperate, and when nighttime temperatures don’t drop, we don’t get that critical time we need to relieve the stress on our bodies from being overheated during the day.”
