November 19, 2002
OECS Director General Remarks at Renewable Energy Conference
In particular, I wish to recognise some of my old friends scattered among you, who, filled with the eagerness, vigour and energy of youth, toiled long and
hard in our collective efforts to make the Caribbean more energy self-reliant and efficient. In these efforts we assembled a distinguished group of technocrats, university academics and practitioners from the utility companies
and other areas.
Allow me at the outset also, to congratulate the organisers of this conference for placing renewable energy back on the agenda.
When our association of electric utilities decides that renewable energy is an issue to be addressed in a serious setting by such an eminent group of specialists as the programme of the conference informs, then we need
to sit up and treat the matter with the gravity that it deserves.
I wish also to recognise the OAS, and for those of you who may not know it, the OAS has been a long supporter of renewable energy programmes. As far back as 1981 there was a project called
‘human settlements and energy project’, which revealed very early, a clear understanding by that organisation, of the link between energy and social and human development.
After twenty or so years of lip service and passing reference, it is a welcome development to those of us who are the survivors of the exciting days of the 1980’s when our work in energy – both fossil fuels and new and renewable
sources of energy - was our bread and butter. Before acronyms became a major communication medium, we had our own. If you did not know what “NRSE” was, you were not invited
to break bread at the table of the select, who worked with new and renewable sources of energy.
Have we come full circle? Are we simply returning to an old fad? Is it that we are once again merely genuflecting to the threats of war and rumours of war in the Middle East a la
the bush doctrine? I sincerely hope not!
I do not think we can afford to repeat the responses of the early 1980’s. Once oil prices stabilised after
almost a decade of continued gyrations, we gave up on the promises held out by NRSE and returned to our old petroleum habits where fossil fuels became king
once again and renewable energy, an exotic curiosity.
So what has changed? Why must we, albeit older, wiser and more cynical, now take seriously this renewed interest
in energy and renewable sources of energy?
The simple answer is that we got it wrong then. Let us try not to repeat the old mistakes. All the arguments we
made in the 1980’s are still valid today. Fossil fuel reserves are not inexhaustible. Supply and price are still determined by political variables over which Caribbean countries
have no control. The use of fossil fuels negatively impact on our environment in both the short and long term.
While the technology still has a long way to go to completely displace fossil fuels, NRSE does provide a viable
alternative in many applications and end uses. Its impact on the environment is less deleterious. Some NRSE can be delivered at prices comparable to fossil fuels. And perhaps most important, the sources of renewable energy are more
democratic in their origin and distribution.
These realisations are only part of a wider picture, however. Our approaches to life and how we treat our planet have changed quite dramatically over the past two decades. And perhaps
it is this consciousness and understanding of our life situation, more than any other single fact that provides the renewed impetus for us to once again address the questions of how to achieve greater use of renewable sources of
energy.
Belatedly, we have recognised that we can no longer take our planet for granted; that not all material
facets of our existence are renewable; that each generation has the responsibility to preserve our environment for the benefits of successive generations.
We equally recognise that our civilisation will only perpetuate itself when we take a collective and
deliberate approach to protect the livelihood of all.
Sustainable development is therefore not some amorphous concept being promoted by a bunch of idealistic
misanthropists who are seeking to stand in the way of capitalist progress. Sustainable development is a very real model that seeks to ensure the
participation and inclusion of all segments of the global civilisation in world development.
One way of accomplishing this is by ensuring that the benefits of technological progress are available to all;
that in seeking to achieve this, we ensure that technological progress is not inimical to our livelihoods, our normative and material environment.
Inevitably, the collective efforts to secure these broad principles locate the more widespread
introduction and utilisation of NRSE at the core of the matrix of activities that we are required to undertake. As we have said, renewable sources of energy are more democratically located; the technologies of exploitation
relative to both costs and utilisation, are increasingly being made more conducive and applicable to smaller social groupings, with a capacity to allow
even remote or isolated communities to employ modern technologies to better their living conditions.
Sustainable development policies that recognise energy as one of the essential elements, are now becoming enshrined in declarations at all levels – the global, the regional and
sub-regional and the national. In fact, here in the OECS, our development manifesto adopted by our heads of government – the OECS development charter is very clear on this matter. Among the challenges that it
exhorts the OECS states to confront are the following:
- The negative impact of the high cost of conventional energy; [and]
- The opportunity for utilising alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, hydro and thermal with which our region is well endowed.
>Further, our member governments through the charter, have pledged to implement the St . George’s declaration of principles for environmental sustainability in the OECS, adopted
two years ago by OECS environment ministers and which declaration exhorts the OECS states to
Apply cleaner, more energy efficient and environmentally desirable technologies, systems and methods.
At a more immediate and material level, OECS heads of government at a recently concluded summit on the OECS economies concluded that energy costs to the productive sectors - tourism,
agriculture and manufacturing – was one of the factors mitigating against the economies achieving international competitiveness. In seeking to ensure that these economies are transformed and grow in a sustained manner, they pledged to pursue action that resulted in
relatively lower and more stable energy prices; and to examine policies and incentives that promoted more efficient energy utilisation.
Against this rather extensive foreplay, let me now turn to an essential question that this conference should address: what role can our regional electric utilities play in promoting
the sustainable development of our economies and societies? >
In my view, there are two inter-connected scenarios. The first is the response to the question of how
can the utilities provide energy to all potential users at prices that are affordable. I would argue that this has to be accomplished if all segments of our societies are to
participate fully in this technologically driven world.
The response to this is the obvious: utilities have to ensure maximum efficiency gains in their systems of
generation and distribution. The savings realised here can then go towards providing the investment required for capacity expansion to bring onto the grid, the potential consumers at the
lower ends of the income scale. At the same time and even though some utilities may not view it in their short-term interest, they also have to become more proactive in promoting energy conservation and efficient
consumption patterns among all users.
The related scenario speaks to the diversification out of fossil fuels. This will entail much more than a technological solution. There will be the need for a more all-embracing shift
– a sea change in other words – in the philosophy, modes of operation and management of the utilities. Some of the areas that spring to mind are:
Decentralisation of production/generating capacity as opposed to technological conglomeration;
Mastering the management of diffused energy sources as distinct from the traditional concentration on a single source;
The regulatory regimes that allow for a monopoly in
generation and distribution will have to be examined and perhaps made redundant to allow for wider involvement in energy supply;
