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Tag: Sustainable energy

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JPS News

Scotiabank introduces energy loan calculator

December 11, 2012

Scotiabank‘s energy loan customers can now determine potential loan payments, based on consumption, online.

The financial institution launched its innovative SmartEnergy Calculator on Thursday at its Constant Spring Financial Centre. The nifty energy loan calculator complements the Bank‘s SmartEnergy Loan available to Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and householders to fund energy efficiency projects that will help the environment and cut energy costs.

(From left) Kelly Tomblin, CEO of Jamaica Public Service Company; Wayne Powell, executive vice-president retail, Scotiabank; Dr Kirk Abbott, managing director of New Leaf Energy and Phoebe Buchanan, manager of Scotiabank

Alternative Energy Government LNG

Government Committed to Energy Diversification – Robinson

November 29, 2012

 

Government LNG Solar Energy

Financial institutions take aim with green energy loans

October 16, 2012

With competitors like Scotiabank and Victoria Mutual Building Society (VMBS), newcomer Nation Growth Microfinance Limited found a way to attract more clients to its Green Energy Loan.

While its rivals offered an interest rate of over nine per cent on similar loan packages, Nation Growth’s rate is the lowest in the island at eight per cent.

Green energy loans are becoming more prevalent. (Photos: Aston Spaulding)

 

“We’re not going to leave out any sector of the society,” said senior sales manager Vernon Dunkley.

“In pricing our product, we assume eight per cent is the rate that the average person will find feasible.”

But although eight per cent can be considered unprofitable, Dunkley said the company would not raise its rates since this will leave some potential customers behind.

“We don’t think the way our competitors think,” he said at a Development Bank of Jamaica energy conference at Emancipation Park on Friday.

“If we give customers an opportunity to save, then they end up with more funds to spend on other things, like one of our other products.”

Building customer relationships is a crucial strategy, he said, noting that small increments of profit spread out over many clients will leave Nation Growth with a bottom line similar to other firms.

Green energy loans are the latest offering by financial institutions that provide small and medium enterprises as well as residential customers the opportunity to retrofit their properties with energy conservation devices.

The ongoing discussion about alternative energy sources has provided the perfect opening to introduce people to what those alternatives are, Dunkley said.

All three institutions have partnered with companies providing renewable energy solutions to make it easier for customers to choose alternatives.

Both Nation Growth’s and Scotiabank’s partnerships with Iree Solar and New Leaf, respectively, allow for customers to sell any excess energy they might generate to the Jamaica Public Service using the standard operating contracts provided through the Offices of Utility Regulation.

VMBS’s partnership with ConserveIt provides discounts on heating systems and other energy sources, said the energy company’s chief marketer, Milton Jackson.

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Alternative Energy JPS News Solar Energy

UTech to run on solar power

October 10, 2012

JAMAICA Public Service (JPS) and the University of Technology (UTech) have partnered to establish a solar renewable energy facility.

Recognising the need for more diversification in electricity generation, both institutions signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday for the solar energy project

Jamaica Public Service Company and the University of Technology signed a memorandum of understanding to set up a solar renewable energy facility. Valentine Fagan (left), vice-president expansion, JPS; Kelly Tomblin, president and chief executive officer, JPS; Errol Morrison, president, UTech and Ruth Potopsingh, UTech

Alternative Energy Government LNG News

Increase use of alternative energy sources

October 4, 2012

MONTEGO BAY, St James – TOURISM and Entertainment Minister Wykeham McNeill has challenged stakeholders in the sector to augment alternative energy supply sources and expand the use of supporting energy in a collaborative effort to keep the industry buoyant.

“As a sector, I am encouraging all our tourism partners to do what you can incrementally and over time to expand your energy options and increase your use of sustainable energy,” McNeill charged.

Sandals Resorts International (SRI) Director of Administrator and Business Processes, Wayne Cummings (left) and Tourism Minister Wykeham McNeill are locked in discussion following World Tourism Day Luncheon held at Sandals Montego Hotel, last week. (Photo: Kenroy Pringle)

“I want to encourage our tourism sector partners to seriously explore the use of alternative and sustainable energy sources, in our collective efforts towards the future sustainability of the tourism industry“.

Meanwhile, former President of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) Wayne Cummings noted that for a downward trend in energy costs to be realised, an energy policy would have to be written, “agreed to, and we all stick to it”.

“So we need to figure it out and make it known to everybody,” Cummings argued.

Cummings, who is also the Sandals Resorts International (SRI) director of administrator and business processes, was speaking during a World Tourism Day Luncheon held at the Sandals Montego Hotel, where McNeill, Junior Minister in the Ministry of Tourism and Entertainment Damion Crawford and other tourism officials, were in attendance.

Prior to the luncheon, the party toured a villa at the resort in which suites are fully powered by solar technology, allowing for the harnessing and storing of energy to power sections of the resort’s operation, through a pilot project undertaken jointly with Panasonic.

Paul Grey, head of ATL Energy and Engineering, said with the US$100,000 investment, savings of up to US$120,000 could be realised within a decade.

In the meantime, conceding that the cost of establishing alternative energy sources will be costly at the beginning, the tourism and entertainment minister also underscored the need to retrofit, among other solutions.

“We have entities of varying sizes and I realise the initial costs involved may seem daunting, but it may be that you need to retrofit your bulbs, install solar panels, implement waste water management systems plus a myriad of other solutions,” McNeill noted.

He further noted that energy strategies should form a major plank of each entity’s Environmental Management Policy.

“So today (Thursday) is a good time to once again seriously consider plans to implement energy solutions in a manageable form that will allow you to monitor the performance and provide real readings on the effect on your bottom line,” McNeill remarked.

“Let each and every one of us play our part in ‘Powering Sustainable Development‘ to the benefit of our sector, our society and nation at large”.

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News

Gov’t committed to renewable energy

May 24, 2012

PRIME Minister Portia Simpson Miller has reiterated her administration’s commitment to the integrated use of renewable energy to develop the economy and eradicate poverty.

The prime minister gave the assurance at last Wednesday’s opening of the joint University of Technology (UTech)/German Embassy Sustainable Energy Conference and Exposition at the institution’s Main campus in St Andrew

“The choices we have to make are very clear. The current level of energy consumption is unsustainable,” she said, noting that the introduction of LNG as a part of a short to medium-term plan to diversify the energy supply mix is proceeding apace.

Simpson Miller told the gathering of stakeholders in the energy industry, ministry officials and members of the diplomatic corp at UTech’s Alfred Sangster auditorium that a small developing country such as Jamaica cannot expand its productive capacity, attract business and ensure the well-being of its people, with the unprecedented increases in the cost of energy annually.

“Next to debt-servicing, the cost of energy represents our greatest outflow of foreign exchange, and the outlook is for this to worsen,” she said.

She said the Government has set itself a very ambitious goal to see renewable energy sources making up 30 per cent of the national energy mix by the year 2030.

“We have embarked on a clear path for introducing and encouraging the development of the renewable energy sector,” Simpson Miller noted.

She said that she will also be closely monitoring energy consumption in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) under the Public Sector Energy Efficiency and Conservation Programme, which is in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank, and is currently underway.

Under the programme, government ministries and agencies will have set targets by which they will be required to reduce their consumption. The OPM was one of the first government buildings to be retrofitted.

Germany’s Ambassador

News

Energy fund for Jamaican businesses, once again…

February 8, 2011

This is nothing new as the article below even points out that ‘Lewars said the decision to pursue the initiative primarily arose from the “sluggish” response to the energy fund by targeted stake-holders since 2008.’

Yes folks there have been millions of dollars avail for energy to all Jamaican businesses since 2008. Then why has no one taken the loans causing it to be sluggish? When I met with DBJ a few months ago inquiring about this mysterious ‘energy loan’ the facts were these. Yes the loan is available and at that time they had just reduced the interest rate to 9.75% so that’s not news. The problem was, and I am sure still is since there was no mention of it in this not news article, that the term for the loan is max four years (or something ridiculous like that). Which makes the monthly payment for the loans extremely high plus the interest rate at 9.75 is still too high.

If they are serious about energy loans in Jamaica we need a loan term of 10-15yrs. This will make the monthly loan payment less than what a business is paying to JPS monthly. Now I understand its risky to lend businesses for more than five years but there are some very strong Jamaican companies who have been around for decades who are strong enough to qualify for an extended term limit.

Honestly, I went to them gym this morning at 5am before work so I am tired just like this energy loan argument. Making millions of dollars available is not enough as they have been doing that since 2008, allegedly. Corporate energy loans need extended term limits and if possible better interest rates to make the monthly loan payments less than what businesses pay a month to JPS. Until then the money will sit there gathering interest for who knows who to do who knows what with while the DBJ keeps being baffled as to why no wants to pay 5 times for a loan on a monthly basis than what they are paying JPS monthly. Even if it is for only 4 years. Every other green energy country figured this out in 2008 yet its now 2011 and we are trying to teach an old dog new tricks.

I am not a rocket scientist. I am Jrob… See Gleaner article below.

The Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) has embarked on a three-pronged initiative to promote its small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) energy-loan facility, which is financed by the PetroCaribe Fund.

The initiative, to be undertaken over a 24-month period, will include a market study to determine demand for renewable energy projects; strengthening of the technical expertise to support project development and implementation by targeted sector interests; and a public-education campaign, to showcase energy efficient, energy conservation and renewable energy projects already implemented.

Yvonne Lewars, general manager of DBJ’s Approved Financial Institutions Relationships (AFI) Division, said the initiative will be jointly financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the DBJ. She said the project would cost US$807,000, or approximately J$68.6 million.

Lewars said the decision to pursue the initiative primarily arose from the “sluggish” response to the energy fund by targeted stake-holders since 2008. These include commercial and industrial entities, energy-service companies and manufacturers of energy-efficiency equipment and devices.

Over $500 million, provided by the PetroCaribe Fund, has been committed by the DBJ to finance the development and implementation of energy efficiency, energy conservation and renewable energy projects.

The funds are on-lent to sub-borrowers, primarily business entities interested in pursuing such projects, through AFIs affiliated with the DBJ, at an interest rate of 9.5 per cent per annum.

AFIs include commercial banks, merchant banks, the National People’s Co-operative Bank, the EXIM Bank and microfinance institutions.

Lewars says $68 million was set aside for project development in the manufacturing, agro-processing and services sectors, and the balance of approximately $432 million earmarked for SMEs and tourism interests. A maximum of $15 million per entity is provided for SME projects which, on average, equates to some 90 per cent of the DBJ’s funding input to borrowers.

Jamaica Gleaner

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