Chairman of CoopEnergy Trevor Browne issued the following clarification statement in reply to the following comment made by Dr. Roland Clarke – Blogmaster
This issue is perhaps at the very heart of the current impasse in the ongoing Rate Hearing, and even more fundamentally in the dismal lack of progress of the proposed energy transformation for Barbados.
It is quite clear that EMERA thinks that BLPC belongs to them, and that they therefore have the option to do as they please in exercising that ‘ownership right’. We are also aware that Dr Clarke has been a paid consultant to the Government of Barbados and perhaps has been able to convince local officials that this is the case.
As a direct result of this thinking, the Ministry of Energy has been pursuing a policy of promoting competition in the energy market in an effort to ensure that BLPC / EMERA are not allowed to dominate and exploit customers using this monopolistic advantage.
Unfortunately, Barbados is much too small for such competitive – styled development in such a critical utility. Due to better economies of scale, centralised administration, responsibility for performance, and better compatibility of equipment and maintenance systems, it is significantly more efficient to have a unified, collaborative approach to such national development.
WHO OWNS BL&P?
The Barbados electric utility is well over 100 years old. It is established by the Laws of Barbados as an entity created for the public good. BLPC is regulated by the Fair Trading Commission (FTC) and its day-to-day administration is leased – via a long term franchise, through a license issued by the Minister of Energy. The current lease expires in 2028, having been issued in 1986 for a period of 42 years.
Under the license, the Franchise Holder is required to upkeep the infrastructure in tip top shape and to plan and prepare for new innovations and improvements. No major changes can be implemented without the written approval of the FTC. The Franchise holder is unable to sell anything, buy anything, retire anything or give away anything without such prior written FTC approval. They must also maintain a FTC approved minimum standard of service during the franchise period.
The Franchise holder is unable to raise rates or to offer discretionary rates (even to employees) without specific FTC approval.
Come 2028, unless the Minister of Energy is somehow disposed to continuing the current quagmire by extending the present arrangement, the BLPC / EMERA franchise ends, and a new Franchise Holder may well be appointed to take over what is left at the end of the BLPC/EMERA term.
Obviously then, the Barbados Electric Utility is owned by the people of Barbados, is regulated by the FTC, and its day-to-day operations are leased, by the Ministry of Energy, to the most appropriate bidder at renewal time.
CAPITALIZATION
Electric Utilities require high levels of capital investment. The Laws of Barbados provided for the capitalization of BLPC by way of raising share capital, and also by various investment instruments which could be issued by the franchise holder. For over 100 years, BLPC shares were held by a range of electricity stakeholders ranging from foreign speculators, Government, the NIS, BLPC employees, the general public and other businesses. The Board of Directors also reflected the broad range of stakeholders until 2013.
In 2013, for some reason yet to be explained, The FTC permitted EMERA to acquire 100% of the share capital by forcibly displacing all other stakeholders from the equity holdings, and subsequently as well, from the Boardroom. It is to be noted that the very same FTC refused a request from SOL to purchase BNTCL on the grounds that this would be anticompetitive for the oil market.
The FTC more recently refused the sale of BICO on similar anticompetitive grounds. Not all Barbadians buy ice-cream, nor does all Barbadians buy oil directly, however every single resident of Barbados is directly impacted by the cost of electricity. As intervenors, we await FTC’s explanation for this critical variation in policy.
This situation maybe confusing to those who think that BLPC is a regular company that was created by its shareholders to achieve their own specific objectives. However it simply means that EMERA owns 100% of the allocated share capital of BLPC, which continues to be fully subject to the Laws of Barbados, to the regulation of the FTC, and most critically, to the decision of the Minister of Energy come 2028.
Meanwhile, the BLPC records clearly show that exactly 100% of all costs associated with BLPC operations have been borne by its customers – the residents of Barbados. Total investments by all others so far, has been zero dollars.
Perhaps it is becoming clearer to Dr Clarke why we may not have sought his advice for CoopEnergy to date, as we have a completely different view of the status quo than the one that he has accepted.
We can also say, for the record, that CoopEnergy has already submitted our formal application for consideration by the Minister of Energy in the allocation of the new Franchise – which is imminent.
We have also already made contact with our Co-operative partners at the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) in order to access all of the needed technical, financial and regulatory support that will be required to remake Barbados into a model of Co-operative Ownership in the energy sphere.
The Barbados Light and Power Co is obviously a natural monopoly although there is effort to liberalize the generation/distribution of electricity. We have to be very careful as a country to ensure the FTC and government regulate to ensure this company is regulated in the public’s interest. Energy cost is at the core of how we regulate cost of living in Barbados.
The decision to let the full ‘ownership’ slip to EMERA appears on the surface to be a money grab or was it a mix of incompetence and intimidation. The blogmaster recalls then Minister in Charge Darcy Boyce defending the slow speed at which introduction of RE was being managed by government so as not to destabilize the grid. Today the grid appears to be unstable AND the old generators on Spring Garden are still in play?
What the Hell!!
This is like a typical train robbery, except that the BB passengers are all fast asleep, and totally unaware of how they are being scammed.
So what exactly leads you to think that ‘ownership’ was ‘let slip’ to EMERA Boss? …as opposed to being ‘handed over’ in some sinister plot?
However, the plotters seem to have forgotten the small matter of the Laws of Barbados….Laws which a certain interventionist lawyer appear to know intimately…
BUT WAIT Doh!!!
How many changes have been (and are currently being) made to these SAME damn laws …since this ‘ownership slippage’ occurred…?
Do you know?
…and exactly why again?
http://www.what-a-curse.bb
It it our suggestion that both Trevor Brown and Roland Clarke are right to certain degrees.
However, if we were forced to choose, we’ll have to side with Clarke as a matter of effective ownership.
While Brown’s determination rest with the nature of sovereignty, history, issues of contracts and regulatory frameworks, and the like.
It escapes him that the government of Barbados is and has always been a captive in the hands of external forces. Thus giving his primary arguments little validity.
These bases, though well-intentioned are fraught.
Roland Clarke, regrettably, but ardroitly understands the differences between ownership and control.
He understands how corporates have always used governments to establish monopolistic, rent-seeking, avenues to generate excess profits – rent-seeking.
He is quite right that BLPC is effective owned by Emera. And those who think differently, under any guise, or in anticipation that this or any other GoB would act on any other basis when a prior agreement expires are dreaming.
Indeed, we’ll proffer that this administration would have already given verbal assurances that any such leases will be renewed.
Finally, it matters not what sovereignty, regulatory, contractual frameworks government may have erected to present a patina of public good.
For at the end of the day neither this nor any other Barbados government will challenge the might of Emera, and by extension the Canadian or international financial markets in ways which shall be perceived as a threat to international neoliberalism itself.
We hate not to be on the side of
Trevor Brown, but we must.
My first comment on this issue
“NorthernObserver on September 1, 2023 at 12:11 PM said:
3 Votes
The 🐘 in the room seems to be the franchise expiration date (2028)”
So be it.
The blogmaster is usually very crafty in how he makes thread entries.
Bajans call this an endaround or just endround. And it has some similarity to the Savoy issue.
Likely why Co-opEnergy is avoiding certain entities, for the issue is to resolve the franchise agreement. Versus buying the BAMC, though that remains a possibility. Yet, one cannot invest $100M without knowing how and when the franchise will be settled.
We wonder who’s watching the mega trends.
Naisbitt and Toffler and others did foundational work herein.
As interest rates continue to rise. Bond prices are going to hell.
And nobody wants American paper.
Most of the bonds were bought when interest rates were in the cellar. As the inverse relationship between interest rates and bond prices take centre stage.
We’ve had 3 or 4 banks failing already on this account.
Added are exogenous factors putting additional external pressures on the US economy, the USD, etc
In recent years the Chinese and the Saudis have led the well-beaten path away from the useless American paper.
In the case of China, their 1.3 trillion holdings have been reduced to about 700 billion.
The United States never intended to repay its debt. It was an article of faith in Washington that the financing of the twin deficits could be circulated and re-circulated forever.
The “future shock” is coming. In those circumstances, this talk about BLPC will be inert.
From the blogmaster’s FB page.
@ NorthernObserver on September 7, 2023 at 11:23 AM said:
“Likely why Co-opEnergy is avoiding certain entities, for the issue is to resolve the franchise agreement. Versus buying the BAMC, though that remains a possibility. Yet, one cannot invest $100M without knowing how and when the franchise will be settled.”
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“For the ‘CoopEnergy’ to achieve its primary objective of being the major generator/producer of electricity to consumers in Barbados the GoB would have to compulsorily acquire aka nationalize the BL&P in the interest of national development similar to what it did in the case of Ms Ram’s property to facilitate the erection of the still undelivered Hyatt hotel.
Emera would not just walk away, for peanuts, from its investment in that fossil-fuel generating plant down Spring Garden (or even its recent solar plant) unless it receives twice as much as it paid for it.
Now where would the GoB find that foreign money to pay Emera? Certainly not from the IMF or any of its associates!
But, on the other hand, the Colonel might just have a ‘mutual’ card up his sleeve and might be looking towards the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), to bail out Barbados in its hour of nationalistic need.
Isn’t it amazing how so many are punching holes in CoopEnergy’s proposal and it has not been made public?
In related news.
It seems the pandemic has not thought us anything. If ever there was a time for Barbadians to come together to pool resources to ensure we become less dependent on global supplies, especially oil, we never will.
Source: Nation
What Bushie finds truly amazing is the clearly endemic resignation of subservience that comes with the .bb designation.
Boss ..if just the skimpy initial suggestion that some ordinary brass bowls in a co-op have an interest in areas above our designated scope – is able to bring out such pessimism, and such apparent intent to remain ‘safely poor and helpless’…
…….what is even the point of pursuing enfranchisement for BBs?
Talk bout a curse!!
Maybe Roland Clarke could tell us, if he really wants to contend that BLPC was never a monopoly, who were the other providers, across any time period.
Reading the BAMC reports suggests 20 tonnes of cane per acre of land is produced.
Some years it has been about 30 tonnes.
The acreage targeted for energy production is 5,000 acres.
20 X 5000 = 100,000 tonnes of cane.
How much dry bagasse can be produced from 1 tonne of cane?
Google suggests 130 kg or about 13%.
13% of 100,000 tonnes is 13,000 tonnes of bagasse.
What is the calorific value of bagasse?
Google suggests the following “The gross calorific value (GCV) of dry bagasse has a mean value of 19605 kJ/kg.”
13,000 tonnes X 1000 kg X 19605 kJ/kg = (13 X 19.605) MJ
Much of this energy would be used grinding the cane.
“In 2016, Barbados consumed 990 million kWh of electricity.” … Google
Roland, please check my figures, it is a long time since I did sums like this.
If these numbers are correct, it seems illogical to use cane to produce energy.
We are forgetting these simple truths.
When cane is ground and the juice extracted then crystallised to sugar, the energy all comes from the cane itself, the bagasse that is left.
The water extracted from the cane is converted to steam in boilers which are fed by bagasse which supplies the energy.
255 MJ
990,000 MWh
1 watt hour = 1 joule
So 5000 acres will not be transformative.
It will produce 255/990,000 … a fraction of our requirements.
This is how any excess bagasse could be used in a sugar factory, to produce pellets of bagasse which has a useful calorific vale that could be burnt for example in a BBQ,
https://barbadostoday.bb/2023/09/07/co-op-energy-dismisses-critics-of-its-planned-takeover-of-sugar-industry/
“Browne stressed that while Co-op Energy will partner with the local credit union movement to bring the plans to fruition, there was no intention “to take up the credit unions’ money”.
He said the venture had attracted the support of international investors as well as the International Co-operative Alliance, and assured there would be a guaranteed market for the energy that would be produced.
“What we are hoping to get from the credit union is access to human resources. There are a number of managers in the movement who understand co-operatives and who have managed multi-million dollar operations. That makes us confident that we can find the type of people [locally] to make this successful,” Browne explained.
Confused? One day we hear the credit unions have millions in cash and locals will get to invest and own, and the next, we are not looking to take up the credit unions money and have international interested parties.
What the blogmaster understands from the information provided is that CoopEnergy management approach is built on a cooperative approach and although provision is made for credit unions and members to become members and investors, that is not the only source of investment being solicited.
As I do not read daily, is Barbados Today shrinking from a 40+ page weekday daily to <30 pages. The non related advertising is also shrinking?
@David
How come you publish Nation articles within your comments but not BT? The one posted by @,Hants would seem most relevant.
Why does Mr Browne go to BT vs all media?
@NO
You saw the date stamp for the BT article? It will be added.
But it was online yesterday.
BT is a second read.
@ NothernObserver,
I doan wuk nuh way so I have a lot of time to search / google.
@Rabbit 🐰
Your equation: “1 watt hour = 1 joule”
I usually follow your calculations with interest and at time try to reproduce them
Google:
How many joules are equal to 1 watt-hour? Answer:
The quantity of electrical energy consumed when a 1 watt electrical appliance is used for 1 hour is measured in watt-hours.
1 watt-hour = 3600 joules.
Please revise/update or explain your calculations
@Rabbit 🐰
“a fraction of our requirements.”
However, even with the correction your conclusion still seem valid.
My fear is that other of your numbers may be incorrect.
A source may be helpful.
Grasshopper
That’s why I asked my former co-worker at Intel, Roland Clarke, to check my sums!!
All you have to do is to look at the experience in Louisiana (watch video) where there is 100 million USD invested in a plant to deal with the excess bagasse and convert it to energy.
Then google Jeanerette bagasse and here is what you will find.
The acreage supporting the $100 million USD investment is 500,000, about 100 times the size of the acreage here and almost 5 times the size of Barbados itself.
They produce upwards of 2 million tonnes of sugar a year in Louisiana, we struggle to get 10K tonnes. Most we ever did was 200K, 1/10th of what Louisiana produces.
All you have to do is look at the acreages to know somebody is not doing their sums right …. that is why I asked Roland to take a look.
However you look at it this is an illogical proposal on 5,000 acres.
Must be related to this,
https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2023/01/11/world-bank-approves-us-100-million-for-barbados-green-and-resilient-recovery?fbclid=IwAR0oVIetj17wSYj21eRIGbF-yk5oJnxwEdbJh42fZBUOjTFFDQHRzeNOQIE
How is it possible to engage in this level of analysis if details on the project is to be made public?
Rabbit 🐰 is a very smart guy. Get him off his pet topics and he is very solid. He adds depth to some topics.
My go to guy.
If you listened to Browne he cursorily explained there is a breed of cane to be planted that will be high yielding fibre. The people involved don’t seem to be stupid. Let us give them a chance when the proposal is approved to share their proposal.
@ John on September 8, 2023 at 2:16 PM said:
“However you look at it this is an illogical proposal on 5,000 acres.”
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What we like you to do, also, is use your ‘expert knowledge’ and tell us how much carbon is released into the atmosphere from burning a tonne of locally produced bagasse compared to that generated from a barrel of imported fuel oil (or even diesel) used in the production of electricity at the BL&P’s power plant on Spring Garden.
In any event the burning of fossil fuels must go if Barbados is to put its money where its mouth is on the world stage.
The country just cannot continue to borrow IMF money to pay for imported fossil fuels when there are locally-produced alternative energy sources
And that is the line the CoopEnergy team should be pushing incessantly to the so-called climate conscious public and the country’s policymakers.
CoopEnergy bylaws.
https://www.coopenergy.org/phpsession/mbile_reader2.php
We too had expressed doubt, on another recent thread, as to the ability of Barbados to sustainable replace, or significantly reduce, fossil fuels in any mix of alternatives.
While solar, cogeneration, wind, tidal, and others may help, it seems irrational to suggest otherwise, based entirely on the economies of scale as a point of departure.
This conversation needs to go pass this point to consider other options.
Such options should include but not limited to ……….. nuclear!
And if there is another 100MM to spend on a dead sugar cane industry maybe there could be five to six billion to build out a small nuclear plant which will have supplies more consistent with needs, at much lower cost, and economies which make sense over 30 years.
A guesstimate. A paradigm shift. But what the heck!
Of Jesús christos! A new set of problems but vastly cheaper energy.
Nuclear has always been the logical way to go.
Now what to do with renewable infrastructure before they waste more on storage.
Not to mention the longer term contracts.
Imagine much cheaper power without panels, wind turbines or batteries.
If we are hesitant about having a gasification plant on a 2×3 island we want to go one step further on the risk scale? What is the blogmaster missing?
Missing? True risk assessment.
Nuclear is very safe today.
But if you don’t want it, they are all kinds of boogeymen to keep you away.
Plus, you can probably BORROW more for RE than nuclear? W2E doesn’t compare to nuclear.
Isn’t the idea to retreat to a clean read renewable energy source? Doesn’t nuclear energy take us back to where we started having to mine a finite resource?
“Nuclear is very safe today.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@ N.O.
Bushie was unaware of your forays into the realm of comedy… You always came across as a ‘hard nosed businessman’ (albino-centric as Shiite LOL).
You would REALLY put a nuclear plant in brassbados? …or by ‘safe’ do you mean (SAFE BECAUSE YOU IN CANADA???)
Shiite skippa, a BASIC ‘sewerage plant’ almost kill we donkeys bout here FUH YEARS!! – because a pipe burst….
Up to now um still ain’t fix…
DooBad still trying to assemble $25 million in steal houses from China after three years…
Who the Hell will plan, build and run these nuclear ‘weapons’? …cause you CAN’T be serious…!!!
Boss, stop with that kinda talk before some foolish politician or lawya get hold of the idea, and get wind of the cuntsultancy fees that would be possible yuh..!!
Umm would be no more brassbados …
..more like BLASTbados…
LOL ha ha
David
One can ‘frame’ it however you choose.
The need is clean, inexpensive energy.
Having multiple renewable energy infrastructure scattered all over the landscape, then the need for storage, and still requiring a consistently predictable source. Nuclear. A single plant.
All these so called finite inputs, have multi year reserves. The 80’s estimates is we should be out of oil?
Isn’t the whole renewable infrastructure finite? Did you know photovoltaic cells/panels degrade over time? I learned that the hard way. As does the energy storage infrastructure.
Xxxxxx
Bushie we have plenty reactors around me. I’m not suggesting something “we” don’t have.
The RE energy sources are not finite until the world ends as we know it. Sorry, the blogmaster is not sold on nuclear power for Barbados, it is an ‘overreach’.
You still don’t get it N.O.
There IS an existing abundant oversupply of nuclear energy already in Bdos. It is fission powered and called the SUN…. millions of miles away …and still bussing our black donkeys every damn day wid heat.
The very thought of Doobad being in charge of building a small version at Vaucluse boggles the bushman’s mind…
..and then the BWA providing emergency cooling…??!!
wuhloss!!!
You think this is Canada – where you could always run to Vancouver?.. or to NewBrunswick?
No bosie…
Wunna build one in Toronto – near Young Street first… we will then consider it…
John
You using only 5000 acres that are under BAMC
How about all those idle acres that are under private farm that can come back into production if they can make a profit ?
If the Louisiana example is anything to go by we need 250,000 acres in cane to produce the excess bagasse to be processed by a 100 million investment.
The whole of Barbados is 106,000 acres!!!
Different points of view!!
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cw5_zgyPI2B/
Listen to Mr. Trevor Browne shed a high level light view of the project.
Talking about Louisiana …..
North of the area where sugar cane is grown cotton is king. Sugar cane can’t take frost.
“The largest acreage ever produced in Louisiana was planted in 1930 (1.95 million acres), and the lowest acreage was in 1975 (310,000 acres). In the last five years, acreage has ranged from 610,000 to 849,000, with an average farm gate value of more than $270 million annually”
Clearly Barbados is no more than a pin prick and arguing over 5,000 acres is spinning top in mud!!
Remember this one from the 60’s.
This report on sugar in Barbados is worth reading if you can get your hands on it.
https://books.google.com/books/about/Comments_on_the_Action_Plan_of_the_Barba.html?id=J3PRzwEACAAJ
When did Louisiana start producing sugar?
“With a $3 billion economic value to the state you can make a pretty convincing argument that sugarcane will always be Louisiana’s number one crop.
Except for the Mississippi River, Louisiana was nothing but a swamp for King Louis. There was no gold! There was just New Orleans and millions of mosquitoes, alligators, and palmettos.
For 100 years, French officials, soldiers, and businessmen would rather go to Devil’s Island than be posted to Louisiana.
But, in 1794 a New Orleans planter, Etienne deBoré gambled his life savings on sugarcane. He planted a Cuban cane variety in what would become Audubon Park and made enough raw granulated sugar to make $12,000, a fortune in 1795! Thus, began the concept of sugar as a valuable commodity.
Today, this 200-year-old sugar industry creates 16 thousand jobs with an annual payroll of $463 million. Louisiana sugar growers harvest 15 million tons of sugarcane and produce 1.6 million tons of raw sugar. The tax base created by Louisiana’s 450 farmers and 11 sugar mills support road maintenance and construction, our local schools, libraries, first responders, and public health. They also support numerous insurance companies, fuel distributors, and other ancillary industries across the state.”
https://www.iberiatravel.com/blog/article/history-sugar-cane-louisiana
When I was in New Orleans back in 2018, I saw the grave of Etienne de Bore, the man who first grew sugar cane in Louisiana and produced granulated sugar.
https://www.raymondjohnson.net/genealogy/histories/deBore.php
Coalition of world leaders calls for tripling renewable energy
https://www.politico.eu/article/coalition-of-world-leaders-calls-for-tripling-renewable-energy/
“A 1MW solar power plant of 1-megawatt capacity can run a commercial establishment independently. This size of solar utility farm takes up 4 to 5 acres of space and gives about 4,000 kWh of low-cost electricity every day.” … Google
“In 2016, Barbados consumed 990 million kWh of electricity.” … Google
990 million divided by 4000 divided by 4 or 5 =???????????
We need 990,000 acres if we want to reduce our fossil fuel dependency to zero!!!!
A child can do these sums!!
A child can also realise that we will never replace our fossil fuel dependency with solar power.
So, Grasshopper, do you think bagasse offers a better alternative?
Isn’t it more sensible to grow cane to produce molasses for our rum industry and expand our rum industry worldwide?
Who is trying to reduce fossil dependency to zero?
4000kwh x **DAILY**
David on September 9, 2023 at 8:27 AM said:
Rate This
Coalition of world leaders calls for tripling renewable energy
https://www.politico.eu/article/coalition-of-world-leaders-calls-for-tripling-renewable-energy/
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Ms. Mockley hasn’t got a technical bone in her body or a braincell that can compute these simple sums otherwise we would not be wasting time on renewable energy.
…. well, …. maybe the nuculer energy might work.
We could put a reactor in the Scotland District.
The 100 million US has further blinded the 30 blind mice.
Those 3 blind mice seem to have multiplied exponentially over the years.
Must have fcuked their brains out.
@ John on September 9, 2023 at 2:07 AM said:
“Today, this 200-year-old sugar industry creates 16 thousand jobs with an annual payroll of $463 million. Louisiana sugar growers harvest 15 million tons of sugarcane and produce 1.6 million tons of raw sugar. ”
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Dear Sir John:
Do you know what the Louisiana sugarcane growers do with the bagasse arising from such a large output of raw sugar?
PS: We notice that you are rather reticent recently on the matter of climate change aka global warming.
Do you still insist on denying that such a phenomenon exists and the current high temperatures are nothing to be alarmed about since the planet has always been hot as we are experiencing today?
In any event, it cannot be gainsaid that Barbados must ditch the fossil-fuel based electricity generating plant at the Spring Garden if it is to meet its well-publicized commitment to be carbon-neutral by 2030; or even a more realistic 2035.
Climate change is a hoax.
The worst hurricanes we ever had were in 1831 and 1780!!!
The globalists want countries to destroy their own economies chasing something imaginary.
Miller on September 9, 2023 at 9:58 AM said:
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@ John on September 9, 2023 at 2:07 AM said:
“Today, this 200-year-old sugar industry creates 16 thousand jobs with an annual payroll of $463 million. Louisiana sugar growers harvest 15 million tons of sugarcane and produce 1.6 million tons of raw sugar. ”
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Dear Sir John:
Do you know what the Louisiana sugarcane growers do with the bagasse arising from such a large output of raw sugar?
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Well yes …. duuuuh!!!
What sugar factories have been doing for generations.
Make steam in their boilers.
Steam drives the engines and concentrates the juice.
The problem is that once it is burnt it isn’t available for future use.
What little they have at the end of crop set aside to start the boilers next crop and what excess there is is then processed in the new plant to make pellets.
You don’t know nothing about sugar productions?
You living or you dead?
Whatever we do on 5,000 acres, they do 100x more on 500,000 acres.
If we have 1 tonne of bagasse left over, they have 100 tonnes.
@ David,
There’s no date on this PDF file. I believe it must date back to the previous administration. The rum flavoured Clare Cowan, CEO of Cahill Energy is referenced. The list of incentives is eye-watering and explains how tax waivers and government largesse played a direct role in destroying the country’s economy. Those individuals who were able to make the most of those incentives would not have been your typical Bajans. Here is a classic case of the Bajan taxpayer subsidising the largesse of foreign entities and an elite who know nothing better than how to play the system. This renewal energy policy was clearly open to fraud and money laundering.
https://www.ceintelligence.com/files/investment_opportunities/documents/Barbados-Renewable-Energy.pdf
Those who shall remain afraid of big ideas until they are so directed are now beyond the pragmatic and have entered blindness.
For there are so many applications for nuclear technologies – from medicines to agriculture.
Indeed, cáncer patients in Barbados are serially exposed to isotopos for “healing”. There are scores of such nuclear medicines.
Xtray machines, utra-sound machines and the like may also have some kind of nuclear basis.
Therefore, is nuclear energy not already a part of us. Some may even say we’re exposed to radiation by merely going outdoors.
Certainly, it would be a radical departure to consider a nuclear power plant.
However, to this writer it would make more sense than to continue to pussy-foot with jaded ideas which only represent partial and sometimes unreliable solutions.
And yes, the orders of magnitude of risks are much,much, larger. So too are the potential rewards!
Bushie
That is/was a gem. A superb reply to this new idea
I, too, was surprise to see our Canadian representative ready to sell us a nuclear energy scheme.
Whilst some may have confidence in the safety of nuclear agency, I have a great fear that someone would accidentally bungle their way and build a nuclear bomb which would leave us all dead or in involuntary exile from our glowing sandy beaches.
Not even our bravest politicians would be inviting us to bathe in radiation an sewage.
Great job, Bushie.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2023/09/08/caribbean-off-target-in-meeting-goals-on-renewable-transition/
Relevant
TLSN on September 9, 2023 at 6:34 PM said:
Rate This
@ David,
There’s no date on this PDF file. I believe it must date back to the previous administration. The rum flavoured Clare Cowan, CEO of Cahill Energy is referenced. The list of incentives is eye-watering and explains how tax waivers and government largesse played a direct role in destroying the country’s economy. Those individuals who were able to make the most of those incentives would not have been your typical Bajans. Here is a classic case of the Bajan taxpayer subsidising the largesse of foreign entities and an elite who know nothing better than how to play the system. This renewal energy policy was clearly open to fraud and money laundering.
https://www.ceintelligence.com/files/investment_opportunities/documents/Barbados-Renewable-Energy.pdf
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…. and there you have it … the thinking behind accessing the billions available to fight climate change and reduce carbon dioxide emissions without which green plants cannot survive and produce the oxygen necessary for us to survive.
Its all a scam.
TheOGazerts on September 10, 2023 at 7:20 AM said:
Rate This
https://barbadostoday.bb/2023/09/08/caribbean-off-target-in-meeting-goals-on-renewable-transition/
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None of these people who signed on to these unattainable goals are even remotely able to figure out how limited renewable energy is and how unlikely it is to replace fossil fuel energy.
All they see is the billions on offer.
Their only goal is to figure out how they can get a cut.
Two comments on the document found in the link by TLSN
(1) An excerpt
“The island has a population of 280,000 which is predicted to reach 300,000 by the end of 2030”
** For quite some time we have been aware of our declining population, but, as given above, statistics to support growth or decline are thrown around as needed.
By the way this number is a
dishonest use of statistics. In the source document the population was rounded to 0.3 million in both 2020 and 2030.
To further illustrate, a population of 280,000 prior to 2018 and a population of (say) 251,000 would both be rounded to 0.3M. Yet there is an obvious decline and not a growth.
(2) I was searching for the actual date of this document and could not lot locate it. However, the year 2015 is given in the footnotes.
Free advice… be extremely careful of documents without dates, names and point of contact. Nibble if you must but make certain it is more than bait on a hook.
Everything is a scam in the making.
Energy
Níger just increased it’s price for uranium ore from 0.80 dollars a kg to 200 dollars per.
About 25,000 percent? World market prices.
These White devils!
This is where the action is. Tells discerning readers how much time we have wasted with merchants and their descendants posing as farmers in the socalled sugar industry who have taken us over centuries into a developmental culdesac.
An exit is required.
Niger now needs, Afrika now needs, to throw out all of these White people, all.
And industrialize OUR continent ourselves.
Chocolate manufacture is the same deal. The Germans make 450 billion USD a year but Afrikan cocoa farmers get 3.5 billion for raw cocoa.
Nearly told them that they should process the uranium tooooo. However, if this writer is around some would have certain fears.
Let’s get to nuclear energy and forget the White devils.
Pachamama on September 10, 2023 at 11:27 AM said:
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Chocolate manufacture is the same deal. The Germans make 450 billion USD a year but Afrikan cocoa farmers get 3.5 billion for raw cocoa.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The finished product always reaps the sweets.
Never heard of German chocolate before but obviously the manufacturers have successfully burst their buts to market their product all around the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJwR345HYS8
Were it not for that Niger would probably get little or nothing.
That’s why we need to promote Barbados rum made from Barbados molasses around the globe and help build a demand for a product that will utilise those 5,000 acres.
Me, I am a Cadbury man, not because Cadbury was formed by Quakers in the 1800, but because it tastes so good.
I see in my searches that the Swiss make a good chocolate too.
Distrust among key renewable energy players a stumbling block
By Marlon Madden
A lack of trust has been identified as one of the hindrances to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) transitioning to full use of renewable energy and, subsequently, more affordable electricity for consumers.This issue was raised by regional officials on Wednesday night during the Central Bank of Barbados’ final panel discussion in the Caribbean Economic Forum series for 2023, on the topic What Does Moving to Green Energy Mean for Us?Executive director of the Caribbean Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (CCREEE), Dr Gary Jackson stressed the importance of regional integration to build out the renewable energy sector.However, he argued that trust was lacking, resulting in a slower-than-required integration.“One of the things we need to consider in the transition is that we need to trust each other. Trust is something we have to consider very carefully. It would require a reconfiguration of our systems. It is not business as usual. That is critical,” Jackson said.
“There’s a distrust across the region by country. So, I’ll give you an example: the consumer doesn’t trust the utility, the utility doesn’t trust the regulator, the regulator doesn’t trust the utility, the government doesn’t trust the utility, and that is just a mayhem.”He stated that the total generation capacity in CARICOM member states was about 6 620 megawatts, but the total renewable energy capacity installed to date was only 680 megawatts.Acknowledging that billions of dollars of investment were required to make the transition, including in the modernisation of national grids, Jackson said while the electricity companies were willing to play their part, they simply wanted clear rules.However, he contended that there were still “differences in views” across stakeholder groups and there was a need for regulation in the region to be modernised and harmonised.He shared the view that had the region tapped its renewable energy sources over two decades ago, electricity would be more reliable, affordable and more widely available today.“Those are the things, I believe, if we had started 20 years ago, an innovation would have come into play because we would have done so much. We would have gained so much knowledge that our youngsters would have actually created new technologies for us to even accelerate further, our energy transition,” said Jackson.
The CCREEE chief said while a lot of training has been done in the area of solar power installation and maintenance, a lot more training had to be done in the areas of geothermal, hydro and wind energy.Raquel Moses, chief executive officer of the Caribbean Climate-Smart Accelerator (CCSA), suggested that incentives should be offered to encourage utility companies to change their business models and modernise their systems to ensure faster renewable energy transition across member states.She said there were several examples of renewable energy projects being done in several regional countries, by both private and public sectors, but “we need to tap into getting our stories told and learning from each other”.“We have to trust each other and learn the lessons. None of us are doing everything 100 per cent right, but there are centres of excellence across the region,” Moses insisted.She agreed with Jackson that if the region had transitioned to 100 per cent renewable energy reliance years ago, electricity would not be as expensive as it is now.“So, while I am not suggesting that your bill would have been a quarter of what it [is], the reality is that if we had transitioned to renewable energy sooner we would absolutely be facing lower energy bills,” Moses said.
The two also agreed on the need for greater energy conservation and energy efficiency practices at the household and business levels.Calling for greater unity among countries to build out the renewable energy sector in the region, Moses opined that if countries were collaborating more on a regulatory framework, they would be “far more advanced”.Meanwhile, Ricardo Marshall, director of the Roofs to Reefs programme in the Prime Minister’s Office, called for greater urgency in the transition to renewable energy, to cut back on the amount of foreign exchange leaving the region to purchase fossil fuel.He said it was about time that countries backed up their national renewable energy commitments with action, as they continued to be vocal in calling for carbon-producing nations to contribute more financially.“So we need to make our voices heard and to show our strength in numbers collectively if we’re to move forward,” Marshall said.marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb
https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latest-news/trinidad-rocked-by-two-earthquakes/
The Madden article above describes how the alternative energy bus has been long missed.
When we had Husbands and others with solar, since the 60s and 70s maybe, nobody cared.
Cared that a local industry could have been pioneered, built out. The commentators are generally right that the bus has been missed by more than 20 years we suggest.
And knowing the mercantile mentality centralized we’ll fall back on buying and selling again.
Move on to nuclear!
And this country, like Pavlo’s dog, only knows how to bark when directed.
But once such an opportunity is missed it’s impossible to recover it.
Those who disagree should say what is the exception to this rule.
Except for looking forward to the next. The next alternative energy………. nuclear 😜😜😜😜😜😜😜
@ Pacha
Trying to follow your logic here…
The alternative energy bus definitely pass the Bajan bus stop some time ago.
But how is this different to the many other busses and ZRs that have also passed by the land of brass bowls?
…like the sewerage bus? …the education bus? …the Legal system bus? ..the sale of family silver bus…etc…???
If we had caught the energy bus, THAT would have gone against the trend of every other BB shiite in our experience.
…besides, who bout here could have led such a revolutionary charge…?
Sealy or Stinkliar?
Doobad or Abrams or Symmuns?
give Bushie a break Boss….
The day will come …. and SOON, when our ability to turn on a light at night (or fry a bake) will be solely dependent on whether we can do so WITHOUT requiring imported oils from foreign sources…. cause they will be unavailable ..or just plain too expensive.
YOU can wait for Doobad to bring in a LEGO atomic steal plant from China for assembly… but not stinking Bushie…
The bushman looking for a reliable little 1/2 HP donkey that works offa grass and water, … and a good solid butt pot that can work with either wood or cow down….
You alright yuh hear!!…??!!
Bushie
Truly!
We dungly concede!
For you and Pacha but we have to think about the mass, no?
“transitioning to full use of renewable energy and, subsequently, more affordable electricity for customers”
Is this fact?
Or is this myth?
How is ‘more affordable’ calculated?
Or do we feel so good about generating via RE that we don’t question costs (and hence price).
The product (electricity) still has to be distributed.
I guess we will find out when the hard numbers are forecasted.
Warning
https://www.nationnews.com/2023/09/11/bajans-urged-take-precautions-heatwave/
Jennifer Grandhomme the energy secretary of the USA, decided to show people there that electric cars work.
She and her staff (the foolish bitches) decided to go on a 4 day road trip using electric cars but failed to appreciate their cars’ limitations ….. charging takes time, as in hours!!
The cops had to be called to intervene in an altercation.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12507063/Charging-stations-blocked-family-road-trip-Biden-Energy-secretary.html
National energy investment plan in the works
The Government is expected to launch an updated National Energy Plan and a Barbados National Energy Investment Plan by November.
Addressing the launch of the Caribbean Climate Investment Programme – Energy and Climate Financing for the Eastern Caribbean at Hilton Barbados on Wednesday, Minister of Energy and Business Senator Lisa Cummins also disclosed that the investment plan would allow the private sector and other stakeholders to be able to identify “greenfield” and “brownfield” opportunities for investment in the energy space.
She suggested to her audience that consideration should be given to the level of investment needed for Barbados to reach its 2030 target of 100 per cent renewable energy as well as the new opportunities in the transition process.
“Equally, we are going to be preparing by November/ December at the latest, the launch of the updated Integrated Resource and Resiliency Pan (IRRP). That was done in 2021 but the world has changed so rapidly, technology has evolved so quickly, the space has been crowded in amazingly and incredibly, that we now are in a space in 2023 [where] we made a decision earlier this year that we needed to update the IRRP, which also gave us our energy mix,” the minister said.
“We expect also to be working with one of our international multilateral partners to have a storage strategy as well. So we would have a new energy mix, a new storage strategy…in both instances, which would require investment from the private sector.”
Cummins said her ministry expects to work with stakeholders to be able to capitalise on the energy transition and collaborate with colleagues across the region.
She told the audience which included the president of the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) James Clarke, Grenada’s Minister of Climate Resilience, the Environment and Renewable Energy Kerryne James, and Deputy Chief of Party for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Energy Sector Reform Programme Gerald Lindo, that while seeking to achieve the transition goals was important, it should be done in such a way that it would benefit the pockets of electricity consumers.
Cummins made reference to the idea of a common Caribbean energy strategy and asked participants to think about the areas of commonality that can bridge and anchor the investment approach to capitalising on the renewable energy transition.
“We have been working with the UN Special Envoy for Energy, and in 2024 June, Barbados will be host to the Global Forum on Energy. We will be inviting the entire private sector because there will be an opportunity to look at our energy transition plan and our energy investment opportunities for the energy sector,” she said.
Speaking on the topic Transition to Resilience by the Private Sector, BCCI president Clarke called on businesses to do an impact assessment of climate change, severe weather events and other national occurrences.
He said such assessments should be done not only in their own location but also in their suppliers’ markets and where their customers are so that they can prepare as well as they can to increase the likelihood of their survival and continuation of their operations.
“So the importance of the business community surviving these types of events is critical. All of these things carry very high risks,” Clarke said.
“We must have resilient buildings designed to withstand such weather events. They must be energy efficient, comfortable to work in; they must have your backup power.
Also remember that in a disaster situation, the recovery is likely going to be triage. So you are going to have certain aspects that are going to take precedence,” the Chamber president said.
(EJ)
Source: BT
Lucky break.
https://www.nspower.ca/
Source: Nation