A rainy week in the dry season. So far I haven’t seen a day that hasn’t been potentially highly productive in terms either of photovoltaic or wind-generated power or water catchment. The prevalence (and apparently sufficiency) of solar hot water systems in residential and industrial applications indicates a preexisting national acceptance and acknowledgment of the sun as a source of energy yes, but more importantly as an obvious source of savings. The wisdom of eliminating an unnecessary expense (heating your hot water with an electric water heater) of diesel-generated power (or cooking gas in the case of a gas-only water heater) is either unquestionable, or at least unquestioned in Grenada. Aside from conversation-killing reasons like lack of funds and lack of clear governmental consensus on renewables, why not solar electricity as well? A dispersed energy production system, buttressed by strategically-sited industrial-scale wind power installations and always backed-up by the island’s expensive-but-reliable diesel electric production plant, could, with the adoption of a sane dispersed producer compensation scheme (the grid purchasing power from independent producers instead of relying on carbon-heavy foreign sources of energy), represent another way for ordinary Grenadians to both realize a savings on their own energy consumption and in some cases find themselves cash beneficiaries of their frugality and the energy-hungry habits of the island’s tourist trade.
You can’t go outside anywhere in this country, even on a cloudy day, without reckoning with the power of the sun. For those in windy quarters like St. Patrick’s the straight-line strength of a breeze which has seen no obstruction since the African coast is every bit the constant companion that the sun is. That Grenada is abundantly blessed with the resources which current technology favors for ‘alternative’ energy production isn’t in question. No solution repatriates and democratizes the value of this country’s hunger for energy better than a dispersed renewable energy production system. No solution offers Grenadians equity in potentially immensely-profitable carbon credit-producing ventures better than renewable energy. No solution contributes more to the security, health and international reputation of this island Eden than renewable energy. Grenlec would continue to realize a tidy profit on their transactional economy as owner/maintainer of the island’s electric grid. What other than capitalization remains?
