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CARICOM Spotlights Energy: Citizens Urged To Support Efforts

November 10, 2016 Webmaster

The painting by Candice Henry of Trinidad and Tobago, which placed second in CARICOM Energy Week art and photo competition last year.

THE CARIBBEAN Community (CARICOM) Secretariat is this month drawing public attention to the energy realities of the region while helping individuals to identify how to better conserve while cutting costs.

They are doing it through a slew of activities, all of which are being celebrated as part of CARICOM Energy Month and under the theme “Sustainable Energy for Sustainable Development”.

“There are really two main things we are trying to do. One is to really build awareness among the general citizenry around energy matters so people understand what energy conservation means and what are some of the things they can do to take better control of their energy system,” said Dr Devon Gardner, programme Manager for Energy at the CARICOM secretariat.

“The second thing is for them to really understand the energy situation in the region and what is being done on the macro scale to provide the right-size solutions that can be used to support the sustainable development of the countries of CARICOM,” he added.

To make that happen, among other things, there are three knowledge webinars planned on the subject, all of which target the regional public and a number of key stakeholders.

There are, too, a number of competitions one of them a photo and art competition and another a regional news reporting competition intended to get people thinking through energy issues as they affect them and the likely solutions.

According to Gardner, the observation of CARICOM Energy Month which also takes account of national-level activities, including kilo walk events set for, for example, Guyana and St Lucia is important. And this, at a time when CARICOM countries are collectively using some 13,000 Btu of energy to produce one US dollar of gross domestic product (GDP) compared to 4,000 Btu of energy used by Japan, for example, to produce the same one US dollar of GDP and the global average of 10,000 Btu.

“We live in an age where there is great participation in energy; energy investments and energy solutions are no longer top down. Thirty years ago, the utility made the decisions about what kind of power plants to use, determined how to deliver the energy and a person took what was provided. If you did not have it, you simply waited for the utility to give it to you, which is why you heard of rural electricity programmes and so on,” Gardner noted.

“We are in an age now where technology has changed; there a lot of options available for or small, individualised power generation systems as well as energy services that can be provided directly and in a cost-effective ways, such as solar water heaters. There is also greater awareness of people around what is possible though they might not know what those solutions are. It is incumbent on us to give them the options,” he added.

“It is a part of good governance, it is a part of what modern society requires,” Gardner said further.

Critically, he said information and exchanges this month will afford Caribbean stakeholders the chance to shape their climate future.

“Over the last twenty years or so, the whole issue climate protection and of sustainable development practice has risen to the fore on the global agenda. There is recognition that the climate fight can be impacted by an aggregation of climate actions at the micro level,” he said.

“The role of each individual in being able to fight or mitigate various climate effects has drive a lot of what energy month wants to provide, which is that each individual, in their own space, can do something, which when aggregated with the global efforts, is part of significant tool,” he added.

Gleaner

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BMW Is Turning Used i3 Batteries Into Home Energy Storage Units

June 29, 2016 Webmaster

BMW Is Turning Used i3 Batteries Into Home Energy Storage Units

Repurposed batteries could create a new revenue stream for EV customers. But it’s not yet clear how the buyback program will work.

by Julia Pyper
June 21, 2016

BMW is making a major push into the stationary energy storage market.

The German automaker announced that it is turning new and used i3 batteries into energy storage solutions for homes and small businesses. The company unveiled its plans at an electric vehicle symposium in Montreal.

“With a battery storage system electrified by BMW, our customers can take the next step toward a sustainable energy lifestyle. Coupled with the home-charging and solar energy programs, the system enables BMW drivers to embrace holistic sustainability beyond e-mobility,” said Rob Healey, manager of electric vehicle infrastructure for BMW North America, in a statement.

In an interview, Healey added that energy storage fits with BMW’s 360º Electric program, which currently offers customers electric vehicles, charging infrastructure and rooftop solar through a partnership with SolarCity. Through that partnership BMW i owners receive a $1,000 credit toward SolarCity’s home solar offer. BMW’s sustainability package sounds very similar to the type of solution Tesla wants to offer with its proposed acquisition of SolarCity.

“This is really a part of a much bigger puzzle for BMW that we’re putting together as we look out to the future,” said Healey. “We offer customers electric vehicles, we offer customers charging, and we offer customers access to solar panels and producing their own renewable energy. And now, with this next piece, we offer the customer an energy storage solution that fits into the overall picture of sustainability.”

The market-ready product currently uses i3 high-voltage batteries, but can be equipped to incorporate second-life batteries as they become available. There are relatively few of these used batteries on the market today, because the i3, an all-electric city car, has only been on the market since 2013. That will change as the lithium-ion batteries degrade over time and are no longer considered suitable for vehicle use. A repurposed battery can offer “many additional years of service,” according to BMW.

As i3 batteries reach the end of their automotive life, BMW and German-based Beck Automation plan to turn them into plug-and-play energy storage systems by unbolting them from the i3 and installing them in a Beck-designed charging module. The system is sized to fit conveniently in a basement or a garage where it can be used to power electrically operated devices in a home or to charge an electric car.

The energy storage units are equipped with BMW i3’s 22-kilowatt-hour or 33-kilowatt-hour capacity batteries, which are ideally suited to operate appliances and entertainment devices for up to 24 hours. A typical home in the U.S. consumes between 15 and 30 kilowatt-hours of energy per day.

The systems are outfitted with software to determine the optimal time to charge or discharge the system. The BMW storage system also includes a voltage converter and power electronics to manage the energy flow between renewable energy resources, the home and the battery.

“With this system, which integrates seamlessly with charging stations and solar panels, customers can offset peak energy costs and also enjoy the added security of an available backup energy supply during power outages,” according to the BMW press release.

Theoretically, this concept should give i3 drivers a new way to make money from their used cars by creating a market for second-life batteries. However, it’s not yet clear how a battery buyback program would work.

There are also a number of outstanding questions around battery design and cost. Tesla’s 6.4-kilowatt-hour home battery sells to installers for $3,000 and is estimated to retail for around $7,000. Can BMW’s 22-kilowatt-hour used battery get anywhere close to that price?

In addition, the product release timeline has yet to be determined. According to a spokesman, “BMW is currently evaluating a distribution/marketing strategy where pilot programs in the U.S. could start in 2017.”

BMW has been preparing to enter the stationary energy storage market for a number of years. In 2013, the automaker installed a microgrid application at the University of California San Diego using second-life Mini E batteries. In 2014, BMW integrated high-voltage batteries into a stationary storage system in Hamburg for Vattenfall that stores solar power as a buffer for fast-charging stations. In 2015, NextEra signed a contract for the delivery of 20 megawatt-hours of repurposed automotive batteries from the i3 and BMW’s ActiveE test fleet — which BMW claims is the largest contract of its kind in automotive history.

In addition, BMW continues to participate in an energy storage pilot projectwith Pacific Gas & Electric. Under the program, PG&E manages 100 kilowatts of demand from 100 active i3 vehicles and a stationary unit of repurposed BMW Mini E batteries located at BMW’s Mountain View office. The system was designed to test how electric vehicles and second-life batteries can offer reliability services to the grid. Last fall, BMW shared preliminary results showing that the system had delivered on more than two dozen demand response events called by the utility.

According to Cliff Fietzek, manager of connected e-mobility at BMW North America, past experience revealed that it’s very expensive to reconfigure batteries for reuse, which is why BMW developed a plug-and-play solution for it’s home battery. “We don’t have to put any special software in or take modules out and can take advantage of all of the engineering we put into producing the car battery,” he said. “We can use the same heating and cooling system for the car battery and the same safety mechanisms … there is not too much work to be done on the integration side, which saves a lot on cost and increases flexibility.”

However, the company will have to wait to see the results of its home battery pilot programs before really knowing what the cost and return on investment is, he added.

BMW is the latest auto company to get into stationary storage. Tesla has garnered an enormous amount of attention with the launch of its energy storage business and massive battery Gigafactory. Meanwhile, Toyota,General Motors and Nissan are actively testing stationary storage solutions and looking to make larger plays. Daimler/Mercedes-Benz introduced a stationary battery business in Europe last year, and is rumored to be launching a U.S. product this fall.

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UN Ready To Help Region Secure Clean Energy

May 22, 2016 Webmaster

Chief Executive Officer of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Energy for All Rachel Kyte has said her organisation is ready to partner with Caribbean governments and institutions to secure a clean, affordable and reliable energy future.

She was delivering the William G. Demas Memorial Lecture at the Caribbean Development Bank’s (CDB) 46th annual Board of Governors Meeting at the Iberostar Resort in Lilliput, St James, on Tuesday.

Sustainable Energy for All is the brainchild of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Its main objectives are ensuring universal access to modern energy services and doubling the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency and the share of renewables in the global energy mix.

Kyte said that energy demand is not only the dominant contributor to climate change, but is central to nearly every major challenge and opportunity the world faces today.

She noted that there are 1.1 billion people around the world who still have little or no access to energy, and three billion who rely on wood, coal, charcoal or animal waste for cooking and heating.

DESERVE ACCESS

“We the peoples of the UN want a planet and a future that’s not ravaged by climate change. We the peoples deserve access to affordable, clean and reliable energy and we the peoples know that the time for action is now,” she said.

Kyte noted that the impacts of climate change are being felt all around the world, particularly in the Caribbean. She added that rainfall patterns are changing, which have caused a number of islands to experience prolonged dry seasons and severely low reservoir levels.

“This severely impacts the ability of island nations to grow local crops,” she pointed out, citing loss of an estimated 2,190 hectares of crops valued at millions of dollars in Jamaica due to drought.

Kyte pointed out that the CDB has an essential role to play in providing financing for sustainable energy projects.

The Gleaner

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1.5 Degrees Celsius Remains In Play At Paris Climate Talks

December 7, 2015 Webmaster

After a week of deliberations at the United Nations climate talks in Paris, 1.5 degrees Celsius as a possible target for holding the increase in global temperatures – crucial for islands like Jamaica and others of the Caribbean – remains in play.

“Parties hereby establish the global goal of enhancing adaptive capacity, strengthening resilience, and reducing vulnerability to climate change, [in accordance with the objective, principles and provisions of the Convention, including common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities,] with a view to [contributing to sustainable development] [and] [ensuring adaptation in the context of the goal of holding the increase in the global average temperature [below 2 degC][below [2 or] 1.5 degC] referred to in Article 2],” reads a section of the draft text on outcomes from the deliberations.

However, as evidenced by the brackets, nothing is settled as country heads and ministers come in this week to take over the negotiations from their technical experts.

Still, Caribbean islands, as others forming the Alliance of Small Island States, would have been pleased with the retention of the 1.5 target as an option – one that will necessitate significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions if it is to be realised.

Only two weeks ago, head of the CARICOM Task Force on Climate Change Dr James Fletcher reinforced how critical the target is.

“The conversation has been about 28 Celsius, and we have said that two degrees cannot work for us.

“With 28 Celsius, we will have major ecosystem collapse in many of our countries,” said Fletcher, who is also St Lucia’s minister of sustainable development, energy, science, and technology.

“You will have extinction of some of the biodiversity that is so rich – both marine and terrestrial biodiversity – that makes us who we are. Two degrees Celsius will unleash major diseases on us, will cause our coastal defences to be majorly challenged,” he added.

He was speaking on November 26 at the announcement of the winner of that island’s ‘Media Climate Change Challenge’, which was won by journalist Alison Kentish of Helen Television System.

Challenges Negotiations

Meanwhile, the past week of negotiations has not been without challenges.

“OPEC countries Saudi Arabia and Venezuela stood out for their extensive efforts to derail the process in the first week, including blocking the vital symbol of human rights and ambition in the agreement, the 1.5 degree goal, as well as throwing up roadblocks around the definition of terms such as decarbonisation, carbon neutrality, and zero carbon,” read a release from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, a United Kingdom-based non-profit, which has been following the progress of the talks.

“Also, despite a week of big announcements on renewables from Bill Gates, India’s Solar Alliance, Google, and more, Saudi Arabia have also questioned 100 per cent renewables as being a ‘slogan’ rather than as means to achieving the objectives of the conference,” it added.

Alongside the negotiations has been the ongoing “1.5 To Stay Alive” campaign launched in October in the Caribbean. It is the collaborative efforts of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre, Panos Caribbean, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, the Caribbean Development Bank, and the Regional Council of Martinique.

The goal of the campaign is to bolster the Caribbean negotiating positions, including its effort towards securing the 1.58 Celsius target, given current climate impacts being experienced in the region.

These include sea-level rise, coastal erosion, and warmer days and nights.

The campaign, which has been gaining momentum, has so far seen ‘the launch of its Facebook page (www.1point5. info) and Twitter account (@1point5OK)

The Gleaner

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Bill Gates joins with Mark Zuckerberg and other top investors for urgent global action on climate change

December 4, 2015 Webmaster

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Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft [Image source: On Innovation.com, via Flickr]

On the opening day of the COP21 global climate change meeting in Paris, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg have announced they have joined together with other private investors to help fight climate change by investing in renewable energy. The Breakthrough Energy Coalition will provide financial support to companies that take clean energy innovations out of the laboratory and commercialize them, the main idea being to accelerate progress on clean energy development.

“The world is going to be using 50 percent more energy by mid-century than it does today” said Mr Gates on his gatesnotes blog. “That should be good news, especially for the world’s poorest, because right now more than 1 billion people live without access to basic energy services. Affordable and reliable energy makes it easier for them to grow more food, run schools and hospitals and businesses, have refrigerators at home, and take advantage of all the things that make up modern life. Low- and middle-income countries need energy to develop their economies and help more people escape poverty. But the world’s growing demand for energy is also a big problem, because most of that energy comes from hydrocarbons, which emit greenhouse gases and drive climate change. So we need to move to sources of energy that are affordable and reliable, and don’t produce any carbon.”

Mr Gates added that although current renewable energy technologies, like wind and solar, have made a lot of progress and could be one path to a zero-carbon energy future, given the scale of the challenge, the world needs to be exploring many different paths, and that means it also needs to invent new approaches. These energy breakthroughs will be made by private companies, but their work will rely on the kind of basic research that only governments can fund.

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Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook [Image source: Jason McELweenie, Flickr]

Ways in which to promote clean energy innovation

Earlier in the year, Mr Gates set out on his blog three important ways in which to promote clean energy innovation – incentives, markets and treating poorer countries fairly.

The first of these involves governments drastically increasing their funding for research on clean energy solutions. At present, only a few billion dollars are spent per year on researching early-stage ideas for zero-carbon energy, when really, the world should be spending two to three times as much. Gates said that governments should be doing this for the public good and that the benefits of doing so are “far greater than the amount that the inventor can capture.” Expanded government support for energy research will also lead to more private investment. Gates has invested in companies developing new batteries and other energy storage solutions and also companies developing advances in solar power technology. However, governments need to act quickly on this because these energy transitions are time-intensive.

rsz_max_and_dee_bernt_flickr_windmill_sunset

Windmill Sunset [Image source: Max and Dee Bernt, Flickr]

The second important step is to ensure that energy prices reflect the full impact of emitting carbon. At present, the market does not factor in ‘negative externalities’ – the costs to health and the damage to the environment caused by greenhouse gas emissions. If these costs are reflected in the price, renewable energy will become more competitive with fossil fuels and that in turn will attract more investors to the market. Governments should support this process by creating incentives to develop new solutions while also ensuring certainty in the market so that energy companies can plan ahead and enact the transition to zero-carbon energy.

The third step is to recognize that, at this late stage when climate change is already starting to have disastrous effects on the world, it will continue to hit the poorest people in the world hardest. This means that those countries that have done most to create this problem should spend the most to invest in mitigation and help poorer countries to adapt. The Gates Foundation is now doing this by helping small farmers in poorer countries to adjust to hotter and more unpredictable weather by increasing productivity.

The Breakthrough Coalition

The Breakthrough Coalition consists of some of the world’s top investors who have joined together in the understanding that technology will help to solve the world’s current energy issues, particularly the urgent issue of climate change. This requires an aggressive and urgent global program of zero-emission energy innovation based on a model of public-private partnership between governments, research institutions, and investors. It will involve large funding commitments with a key role being played by governments, with aggressive increases in funding for basic and applied energy research. Current levels of government funding are insufficient.

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[Image source: CheapFullCoverageAutoInsurance.com]

The coalition is focused on the creation of a network of private capital intended to drive forward the transition to an advanced energy future. It is doing this by concentrating on providing investment for early stage companies, involving early investment through seed, angel and Series A investments, with commercial capital expected to take over in the later stages once the investments are de-risked. It will invest in a number of sectors, including electricity generation and storage, transportation, industry, agriculture and energy efficiency. The aim is to boost the development of novel technologies and innovations that make existing technologies more efficient, scalable or help to reduce costs. Given that most of these innovations will come through government research pipelines, the coalition has decided to focus its investments on countries participating in the Mission Innovation international initiative.

Mission Innovation

Mission Innovation was also launched on the opening day of COP21. It consists of a commitment by20 countries to invest in clean energy research and its aim is to “reinvigorate and accelerate global clean energy innovation with the objective to make clean energy widely affordable.” The initiative will seek to double government funding for clean energy innovation in each of its member states

The Breakthrough Coalition consists of:

Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft; Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook, and Dr Priscilla Chan; Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries (India); John Arnold, co-chair of the Laura and John Arnold Foundation; Marc Benioff, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com; Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO, Amazon; HRH Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Alwaleed Philanthropies, Saudi Arabia; Richard Branson, Founder of the Virgin Group; Ray Dalio, Founder, Bridgewater Associates; Aliko Dangote, Founder and Chief Executive, Dangote Group, Nigeria; John Doerr, General Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, United States; Reid Hoffman, Founder, LinkedIn and Partner, Greylock, United States; Chris Hohn, Founder, The Children’s Investment Fund, UK; Vinod Khosla, Founder, Khosla Ventures, United States; Jack Ma, Executive Chairman, Alibaba Group, China; Patrice Motsepe, Founder and Executive Chairman, African Rainbow Minerals (ARM), South Africa; Xavier Niel, Founder, Iliad Group, France; Hasso Plattner, Co-founder and Chairman, SAP, Germany; Julian Robertson, Founder and Chairman, Tiger Management, United States; Neil Shen, Founding Managing Partner, Sequoia Capital China, China; Nat Simons and Laura Baxter-Simons, Co-founders, Prelude Ventures, United States; Masayoshi Son, Founder, Chairman and CEO, SoftBank Group Corp., Japan; George Soros, Chairman, Soros Fund Management LLC, United States; Tom Steyr, Businessman, Philanthropist, and President, NextGen Climate, United States, Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus, Tata Sons, India; Meg Whitman, CEO, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, United States; Zhang Xin and Pan Shiyi Co-founder and CEO, SOHO China, Chairman, SOHO China; and finally, the University of California (UCLA).

The Mission Innovation initiative consists of:

Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and the United States.

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Pushing the Caribbean agenda in Paris

December 1, 2015 Webmaster

St Kitts-Nevis PM makes impassioned plea at climate change conference

PARIS, France (CMC) – St Kitts-Nevis Prime Minister Dr Timothy Harris has called on the international community to “negotiate and agree a legally-binding agreement with ambitious emission reduction targets”.

Addressing the 21st Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Harris reiterated the seriousness and urgency of the threat posed by climate change and the need for an ambitious agreement to be reached during the two week conference.

“My delegation calls on all parties here to negotiate and agree a legally-binding agreement with ambitious emission reduction targets. St Kitts and Nevis recommends that all parties subscribe to at least five-year commitment cycles with robust ex-ante review and ex-poste assessment processes.

“We also hope that developed country parties and other parties in a position to do so, would be encouraged to provide support to vulnerable countries, particularly to Small Island Developing States (SIDS).”

He told the conference which is being attended by more than 100 world leaders that his twin island Federation, like other SIDS “has been undergoing many climate related changes; namely sea level rise, extreme weather events, prolonged and severe droughts, and disruption to our reefs, coastlines and agriculture”

Harris said that the dangers of climate change are real and present and that the threat is also existential. He said greenhouse gas emissions from small island states like St Kitts and Nevis are negligible “yet our small island states continue to be adversely and disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change.

“Nonetheless, as responsible global citizens, we in St Kitts and Nevis are already acting locally to reduce our national carbon footprint even further. The pursuit of renewable energy solutions is now a critical and integral component of our national sustainable development strategy to transform St. Kitts and Nevis into a fully environmentally sustainable small island state.”

Harris said that hi new administration “is incentivizing behavioural changes through the facilitation of duty free concessions on renewable energy technologies.

“We are building strategic partnerships with countries and the private sector to develop geothermal, solar and wind energy solutions. Currently, we have solar farms operating on both St. Kitts and Nevis and are also exploring the potential geothermal capacity on the islands. These renewables will have a significant impact on our energy consumption patterns and reliance on fossil fuels.”

Jamaica Observer

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JAS Explores Wind Of Change

February 1, 2013 jrobinson

Christopher Serju, Gleaner Writer

The Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with a Canada-based company which will see both parties exploring wind-energy solutions for use by Jamaican farmers.

A team from Seaforth Energy in Nova Scotia, Canada, is now in the island on a scouting mission of JAS properties to determine their suitability for hosting the construction of a network of wind turbines to provide a supply chain of cheap, renewable energy.

The project, Clean Energy for Jamaica Farmers, is part of a long-term strategy aimed at significantly reducing production/manufacturing costs in the process enhancing the competitiveness of Jamaican agricultural goods and services on the global market.

The MOU, intended to fast-track efforts to identify appropriate sites and raise investment funding, was signed at the JAS head office, 65 Church Street, Kingston, yesterday.

Bruce Thompson, of Seaforth Energy, told

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JAS Explores Wind Of Change

February 1, 2013 Webmaster

Christopher Serju, Gleaner Writer

The MOU, intended to fast-track efforts to identify appropriate sites and raise investment funding, was signed at the JAS head office, 65 Church Street, Kingston, yesterday.

Bruce Thompson, of Seaforth Energy, told

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Gov’t launches energy-saving street light project

January 11, 2013 jrobinson

THE Government is implementing a street light energy saving initiative, with the commencement of a pilot project, to be undertaken in three parishes over the next six months.

The initiative, being jointly implemented by the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development, and the United States-based technology and engineering solutions firm, Green Energy RG LLC, is aimed at significantly reducing the cost to the budget to maintain the country’s approximately 93,000 street lights, which totals upwards of $2 billion per annum.

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Government Embarks on Street Light Energy Saving Project

January 9, 2013 jrobinson

Local Government and Community Development Minister, Noel Arscott (right), and President, Green Energy RG Caribbean Limited, Jonathan Burke, examine the features of a solar light emitting diode (LED) panel.

The Government is implementing a street light energy saving initiative, with the commencement of a pilot project, to be undertaken in three parishes over the next six months.

The initiative, being jointly implemented by the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development, and United States-based technology and engineering solutions firm, Green Energy RG LLC, is aimed at significantly reducing the cost to the budget to maintain the country

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