Alternative Energy - the time is now and there’s no looking back.
Alternative Energy - the time is now and there’s no looking back. By Sam Duncombe Director reEarth
July 28 2008
After last weeks message coming from the Caribbean Regional Sustainable Energy Conference put on by the US Embassy and Hosted by The Bahamas government, reEarth hopes Aaron Samson of AES Corp. has realized that although we may be a small nation we are certainly not a stupid one.
Mr. Samson has been promoting his fossilized LNG product over our radio waves over the last month, promising that he can lower our energy costs by addicting us to natural gas instead of oil. That logic is tantamount to trying to wean a cocaine addict by addicting them to heroin. Thanks but no thanks Mr. Samson. Natural gas addiction is no solution for our current or future energy problems.
The message that resounded out of that conference was overwhelmingly loud and clear - the way forward for producing energy, reducing our dependence on fossil fuels, keeping millions of dollars in the country, lowering our energy bills, creating new jobs, protecting the environment from global warming green houses gasses, is to dive straight into the renewable energy market, not LNG, not coal, not oil.
The change to the renewable market they said is “as great as the Industrialized Revolution” and that “leadership should be energized not intimidated”.
Technology is no longer and issue, solar, wind, biofuels, tidal power are all proven technologies that can provide the Bahamas with power for us and future generations . It was shown by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s director Dan Arvizu, that the Bahamas has the wind and solar capacity to generate enough energy to power the Bahamas.
On July 7 2007 reEarth joined 2 billion viewers for the Live Earth concert - the brain child of Vice President Al Gore and called on Bahamians to purchase compact fluorescent bulbs to help lower their energy costs, and reduce the amount of global warming gasses entering the atmosphere. Last week reEarth called on the government to consider providing soft loans for consumers to be able to install solar water heaters thereby reducing their energy bills, and that of BEC, and start the process of weaning The Bahamas from fossil fuels.
During the conference Minister of the Environment Earl Deveaux echoed reEarth’s sentiments saying the Bahamas could reduce its fuel import bill by $11 million dollars per annum simply by converting to compact fluorescent bulbs and solar water heaters. Replacing four 60 watt bulbs with 13 watt compact fluorescent bulbs would reduce fuel consumption by 44,000 barrels of oil per year and a savings to the country of 2 million dollars per year.
Minister Deveaux went on to say that replacing 80,000 water heaters with solar water heaters would result in an annual reduction of fuel of 175,000 barrels of oil (resulting in) representing a savings to the country of 11 million dollars. This was based upon usage of an electric water heater being on for 2 hours a day. Practically, there are a handful of people who routinely turn their heater off when not in use, so the savings at the end of the day stands to be considerably (higher ) more than 11 million.
The ball lays squarely at Government’s feet. The Bahamas should follow New Zealand’s lead by forbidding any future fossil fuel based projects. They must now officially turn away the LNG proposal put forward by AES and any others that may be lurking in the shadows, they should extricate The Bahmas from all oil exploration licenses, then they must make compact fluorescent lights and solar water heaters duty free, laws must be changed that allow individuals to install alternative generating power for their homes and businesses, and they must vigorously pursue other initiatives that will secure our energy future with clean, reliable, available, renewable alternatives.
The time is now and there’s no looking back.
END