Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter

Wright

DR. RAYMOND Wright, former group managing director of the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ) and recent recipient of the first CARICOM Science Award, is fond of drawing a simple diagram.

Two simple curves illustrate the contrasting electricity con-sumption in Japan and Jamaica.

In economically-developed Japan, electricity usage peaks at midday during the height of production, whereas in Jamaica, the peak occurs in the early evening when, Dr. Wright observes, people return home after work and switch on the lights.

"We are just having a good time with our energy; we are not using our energy for production and this is not sustainable. We are one of the only countries in the world where regardless of price increases, our consumption habits remain the same," Dr. Wright tells The Sunday Gleaner. "We don't seem to understand that we are an energy-deficient country. It really is an amazing situation."

Successive awareness campaigns by the PCJ, he believes, have failed to sway the public.

HIGHEST RATES

Jamaica has one of the highest rates of energy consumption in the region, partly due to the bauxite sector.

In 2005, the increase in the oil import bill to US$1,267,953 from US$943,468 the year before, was seemingly no disincentive; national energy consumption still increased by 6.2 per cent.

The crux of the national energy crisis is that Jamaica is 90 per cent dependent on imported oil for our energy needs; gas prices and light bills are eating into our incomes and making our industry uncompetitive through the high cost it pays for energy.

Jamaica's national import fuel bill, which could reach US$1.5 billion this year, threatens to eclipse earnings of either tourism or remittances ­ the country's two largest foreign exchange earners.

The national energy policy outlines two options for Jamaica: to improve energy-saving (efficiency) and, secondly, to increase our renewable energy capacity.

The Government intends to promote the policy around the country in an effort to gain greater public support for measures that could include increased taxation on gasolene to fund renewable energies and energy-saving measures. This is part of a drive to increase renewables as a source of generation from six per cent currently to 10 per cent by 2010, and 20 per cent by 2020.

However, the challenge is significant. Public debate and policy itself has been a 'disaster' thus far, according to energy adviser to the Prime Minister, Dr. Cezley Sampson, who oversaw the current national energy policy green paper.

GLIMMER OF HOPE

Dr. Sampson has long argued that the public needs to be less reactionary about prices and more conscious of saving energy.

"The Government of Jamaica does not have any control over the price of fuel, nor do consumers but we have control over the volume we use as individuals," he maintains.

However, there is hope. Beginning in April the National Housing Trust began offering solar water heater (SWH) loans.

Just last week, the Government announced GCT and import duty exemptions on 29 renewable and energy-saving products ­ unfortunately not including SWHs.

A US$10 million energy fund to provide loans to enable the adoption of renewable and energy saving products is being finalised.

PCJ's Wigton Wind Farm has now earned over US$3 million in selling carbon credits, a provision under the United Nations Kyoto Treaty. This created the market for renewable and energy-saving projects that reduce carbon emissions, which contribute to climate change.

Other projects, such as the Government's islandwide distr-ibution of four million compact fluorescent lights, are also eligible to earn carbon credits.

The Office of Utility Regulations has also just published guidelines on net metering. Individuals will now be able to sell electricity to the Jamaica Public Service Company with a 15 per cent premium going to generators using renewable sources.

ENCOURAGING SHIFTS

Maikel Oerbekke is the managing director of Bluefields, Westmoreland-based Ecological Technologies, which sells energy-saving products as well as conducting energy audits.

Mr. Oerbekke is encouraged by recent initiatives and shifts in policy but maintains that more must be done.

"This is a rare case of government being ahead of the private sector in terms of adapting and promoting renewable energy," he notes.

"However, the political environment is still not there yet to encourage investment through incentives. It needs to be understood that energy is what the country and economy relies upon and it is about survival. If we realise that, then we can make the changes," argues Mr. Oerbekke.

NEXT WEEK: How companies and households can take advantage of renewable and effficient technologies and save. Send comments to ross.sheil@gleanerjm.com.