The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas’ continued near-rock bottom ranking among developing nations for renewable energy adoption “speaks for itself”, industry players said yesterday amid renewed calls for “clear” government policies to spark the industry’s growth.

The Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) Climatescope 2014 survey, which rated 55 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America/the Caribbean on their usage of renewable energy, placed the Bahamas a lowly 52nd - ahead of just Tajikistan, Venezuela and Suriname.

The Bahamas’ 0.53 score also placed it 24th out of 26 nations in the Latin American and Caribbean region, a fall of three places from 2013, when it was ranked 21st in the region.

Renewable energy providers spoken to by Tribune Business yesterday agreed the Bahamas’ persistent low ranking in the Climatescope survey was “not surprising”, given that this nation has to-date taken minimal steps to embrace sustainable energy sources that, apart from lowering costs for consumers, would also boost the environment.

Guilden Gilbert, president of the Bahamas Renewable Energy Association, when informed of the Climatescope report’s findings by Tribune Business, responded: “I can’t say that I’m very surprised.

“The Government only recently released the National Energy Policy and the advisory that they are going to move forward with a net billing policy for small amounts of power sent to the grid.”

Mr Gilbert, contacted in Miami, declined to say more until he had time to study the full Climatescope report.

His remarks, though, were echoed by fellow renewable provider, Phil Holdom, Alternative Power Supply’s (APS) president, who said of the Bahamas’ 52nd ranking: “That seems about right.

“It’s unfortunate, but the Government says it is working on a renewable energy policy, so we’re waiting for that to appear.”

Mr Holdom said he was die to meet on Friday with “someone responsible for the renewable energy legislation”, adding that he will also seek clarification on the Government’s recently-announced Renewable Self-Generation programme.

Returning to the Climatescope report, Mr Holdom told Tribune Business: “I would just publish those findings; they speak for themselves.

“It’s disappointing, but we’re hoping for better things, and that they will take advantage of all the solar energy that the Bahamas has available.

“The country needs to have a clear, simple renewable energy policy that allows for net metering and using existing meters.”

The Climatescope report, produced by the IDB’s Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), said of the Bahamas: “The country is highly dependent on oil and diesel generation, and does not have any clean energy policies or initiatives, despite the incentive of high electricity prices (the average was $0.38 kilowatts per hour in 2013).”

The report conceded that “solar water heaters are gaining ground as a means of reducing electricity bills”, but added: “The lack of a net metering policy is a dampener on new investment in distributed clean energy.”

Kenred Dorsett, minister of the environment, in a brief e-mail to Tribune Business from a Cabinet meeting, said the Climatescope report had failed to take into account the recently-unveiled National Energy Policy or self-generation programme he recently unveiled.

These should, in theory, boost the Bahamas’ rankings when Climatescope 2015 is released, and it is possible the Government - and country - are not receiving the due credit they deserve.

However, Mr Dorsett’s predecessor as minister of the environment, Earl Deveaux, last night admitted he was “surprised” that the Bahamas had not progressed further in the adoption of renewable, sustainable energies.

Mr Deveaux told Tribune Business that initiatives such as energy-saving light bulbs, building standards that reduced energy consumption, and the adoption of solar water heaters and panels should have “found greater traction than they have”.

“It appears we’re still talking about it,” he said, adding that Bahamians - both households and businesses - had failed to fully exploit the available technologies and investment incentives.

Mr Deveaux said the private sector had also “looked too closely to the Government to lead” on renewable energy, arguing that businesses were better placed to do this as they had “a better grasp of the nuances of renewable energy than the public sector”.

The former minister said extensive policy-making and document-writing efforts “appear to have been a monumental waste of time. It seems like we have to keep learning these lessons over and over. It’s so unfortunate,” he added.

While science and technology advanced, Mr Deveaux said the “principles” of government policy in relation to renewable energy remained the same, and did not require one administration to “chart a new course”. He identified waste-to-energy as one issue that was “a no-brainer”, given the Bahamas’ reliance on tourism and New Providence’s built-up nature.

Mr Deveaux, though, took issue with the template employed by the IDB and MIF, suggesting that the Bahamas was never given credit it was due when compared to larger, more resource-rich nations.

“The Bahamas loses in that respect always, because there’s such an enormous concentration on New Providence as opposed to the rest of the Bahamas,” he told Tribune Business.

“Many of the policy successes that government has had in this country should ensure us a higher rating than we get.”

Mr Deveaux said no other country was doing what the Bahamas is undertaking with its Marine Parks, and added that he was “a little cynical” about Climatescope-type studies as they were designed to pave the way for project financing by their authors.

Suggesting that the Bahamas should be ahead of Jamaica and Trinidad, and was on par with Barbados when it came to energy costs, Mr Deveaux said: “In a global comparison, I have to argue for the Bahamas.

“But in a national context, we don’t get the continuity, the information and the advances in our society. I have not seen the application of sustained principles applied to our energy usage. We are a high carbon footprint country.”