Technology Minister Phillip Paulwell has announced that starting this week investors in renewable energy projects will be able to bid for up to 115 mega watts of
Technology Minister Phillip Paulwell has announced that starting this week investors in renewable energy projects will be able to bid for up to 115 mega watts of
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.
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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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EXIM Bank Jamaica has again cut lending rates on its renewable energy loans for investment in energy-efficient equipment.
The new rate on offer to small and medium enterprises in the productive sector is 8.5 per cent for Jamaican dollar loans, down from 9.75 per cent last September. The USD rate 5.75 per cent.
“We know that energy costs are high and this is adversely affecting the growth of our small and medium enterprises. Not only in them realising profit but in their ability to compete effectively in the international markets,” said Valerie Crawford, manager of trade financing and risk management at EXIM Bank in a bank-issued statement.
The energy loans are available to commercial and industrial users, energy service companies and manufacturers of energy efficiency equipment and devices.
business@gleanerjm.com
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The country has now signed off on a new building code which seeks to maximize energy usage in new developments.
Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell made the disclosure during a meeting with members of the Jamaica Institute of Engineers, JIE over the weekend.
THE EDITOR, Sir:
I am disgruntled at the fact that I have to pay GCT for photovoltaic cells, while there is no GCT or import duty on photovoltaic panels.
I am pleading that Finance Minister Peter Phillips review this matter and make the final results known to the public and members of the Customs Department, as they seem to be unaware of what is happening.
L. GREEN
MINISTER of State in the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining, Julian Robinson, yesterday reiterated the Government
June 22, 2012
Dear Energy Partner:
Secure Your Energy Future with the IS0 50001 Energy Management Seminar
The Jamaica Public Service Company Limited in collaboration with the Bureau of Standards Jamaica doing business as National Certification Body of Jamaica (NCBJ) will be hosting the captioned seminar in Kingston on July 10, 2012 and in Montego Bay on July 1
The purpose of the seminar is to generate awareness and encourage applicability of the need to employ sustainable energy efficiency measures. This will not only alleviate the impact of the spiraling costs associated with the use of electricity, but will also help to improve your company
Solar Buzz
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Government departments and institutions accounted for up to $11 billion, or approximately $880 million monthly, in electricity costs last year – nearly 15 per cent of the total amount of electricity consumed annually in Jamaica.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding and Energy and Mining Minister James Robertson, who disclosed this information during a workshop staged last Thursday at the Knutsford Court Hotel in New Kingston, cited government agencies and departments, as well as public schools and hospitals, among the primary consumers.
Oil accounts for nearly 40 per cent of the country’s total import bill.
Golding said Jamaica, which has one of the world’s highest energy-intensive ratings, was also one of the most inefficient users of electricity.
“We use 20,000 BTUs (British thermal units) to produce one US dollar of output of value. The global average is less than quarter of that.
“We waste energy, and Jamaica’s economic future cannot be secured unless we address this problem in a fundamental way,” the prime minister lamented.
Golding said the Government, through the energy and mining ministry, had developed four significant platforms – the national energy, national renewable energy, national energy from waste as well as the energy conservation and efficiency policies – to address the issue.
However, the prime minister acknowledged that Jamaica experienced several challenges to fulfilling some objectives in the national energy policy, which called for increasing the mix of renewable energy sources.
“Right now, we’re somewhere near five per cent, and the policy requires we get up to 10 per cent by 2015 and 20 per cent by 2030. That’s ambitious and particularly challenging,” Golding admitted.
He said the challenges were even more pronounced when analysis examined Scandinavian countries, which were environmentally conscious and advanced in their use of renewable energy sources, albeit paying more for it.
“Renewable energy is not always cheaper energy, but they are prepared to pay more in order to get energy that is clean, green and sustainable. Our consumers can’t be asked to bear that burden, and that’s part of our problem,” Golding said.
Conservation important
The prime minister added that while any search for alternative energy sources also had to be cheaper – in order for them to be viable – conservation was important to sustainable energy management.
Golding accused Jamaicans of being price-insensitive when it came to energy conservation, citing motorists’ refusal to change fuel-consumption patterns during 2008 when oil prices rose as high as US$148 per barrel.
The Government’s 10 per cent GCT charge on the electricity bills of persons consuming more than 200 kilowatt-hours monthly in order to make up revenue shortfall had little effect on consumption patterns.
“The information I have from the JPS (Jamaica Public Service Company – the monopoly electricity provider) is that they haven’t even blinked. They pay the 10 per cent and consume the same amount of electricity,” said Golding.
