Observer Opinion Piece: Towards Independence in Electricity (Excerpted)

• In the days before the world oil crisis which began in December 1973, independence in electricity was not an issue as oil was cheap. But since that time there has been talk of having alternative sources of energy because of increasingly higher prices.

• The oil-producing countries then played their underselling game and Jamaica dropped its plans of creating alternative energy because of temporarily cheaper oil prices that sky-rocketed to very higher prices once the alternative energy plans were dropped.

• In the 1990s the government of the day decided that our light and power company, the Jamaica Public Service, would be best divested to private people. Government could not manage JPS in such a way that there were not constant power cuts caused by breakdowns of the generators. But private owners are only interested in profit, which is one reason for higher prices.

• Another reason is the rising prices caused by the US Gulf War. From the 1990s the JPS has been using a certain amount of windmill energy. Then came 9/11 in 2001. The United States of America needed alternative sources of energy to fight their war in the Middle East as the oil available was not enough.

• In any case, the available oil was being used by both sides of the war to fuel war planes and whatever else. As a result of all this, oil supplies dwindled and as a consequence oil prices went up.

• This has brought to the fore once again the argument for greater use of alternative energy, and more important its actual implementation to some extent.

• ...Independence in electricity is slowly but surely coming. Already it is being done by using solar, windmill or a combination of both without going through the red tape, trauma and rigmarole and whatever other delays of attempting to share the grid with JPS. Indeed, solar panels on roofs of houses are becoming very common.

Breathing Problems:
• My interest in solar, hydro and windmill is partly out of concern for our political and economic independence and partly subjective. I am an asthmatic and am affected by the smoke from oil generators and also from coal energy - which is being marketed as safe for health due to improved technology, but I am not convinced. I am not really in favour of any source of energy that requires burning for its effectiveness.

• Our aim should be to avoid any form of energy that increases dependency and is detrimental to health. We should instead be looking towards complete independence in electricity, even if the capital outlay in its initial years is costly, especially with regard to solar energy.

Observer Link:
www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/Towards-independence-in-electricity_12376228

We just put up our panels on our house in Treasure Beach. What a dream to have some power for free!

We will need alot more to be off the grid completely. Just curious as to how many other property owners are in Treasure Beach are getting ready to invest in solar?

Medat...would you mind identifying where in TB your home is located...who did your Electrical Consumption Analysis and the name/location of your Solar Contractor and how you would rate their services?
Do you have confidence that if their were a problem, let say with your inverter, the contractor/installer would be in your yard in a flash to correct the problem and honour warranties?

Did you do battery back-up for cloudy days. We assume that you are grid-tied to the utility (JPS). Do you dream of the day when, with sufficient panels, your smart-meter will be running backwards and JPS will be crediting you instead of the other way around?

Would you be prone to having some of the young engineers (imagineers) from the local Sandy Bank School visit your property for a "hands on" look-see as to their future in an already reliable, yet dated technology, for a renewable energy resource?

Z you think alot like me.

Our home is in Billy's Bay.

We are DIY people and are starting small and expanding ourselves.

We are NOT grid tied. Our big appliances are not being powered yet.

We are thinking of switching to PROPANE for our deep freezer and fridge as I do not forsee being able to afford enough panels to power our present (albiet energy star rated) big appliances. These
are not to my knowledge available on-island but a propane model fridge for example, costs the same thing I paid for my nice fridge in JA. So they are not too out of hand $ wise.

We are only powering some lights and DVD/fan at this point.

We have battery. Just learning and have since discovered more efficient batteries exsist as well as the affordablity of DIY panel building.

It will cost far less for us to add panels by purchasing individual solar cells, soldering our panels from these cells with a few inexpensive supplies. That is our plan.

I fully intend to share this process, as well as other solar projects that are simpler and easier to implement (passive solar water heating with black hose coils and simple solar ovens) with interested "imagineers" and anyone else interested.

I will post here when we are able to do this, as I can really see how this technology can benefit everyone, from no budget to likkle budget and the lucky few who may have enough budget to hire the pros and go full on.

TB DIY folk! Keep it Up! I have lived off grid over my 53 years in Canada; it can be hot & cold, I survived. Yet all best techno for alternative & sustaining systems also means adaptation of human's behavioral consumptions. As the prices drop for such installations there is also a value in human experience. We need to model for our young society the attributes of less consumption. There are already many ways known to survive in health that are not dependant on deep freeze or a 24/7 fan. Please keep my thoughts in mind as your explore!

Medat, do you live in Treasure Beach year round? We would like to meet you and see what you have done when we are down there next.

Send a sound through this board. We travel a bit but someone is usually in town.

Financing Renewable Energy...Interest rates on loans for residential Renewable Energy systems are still shamefully high here on our Rock, but one bank is addressing the issue by dropping their borrowing rate below !0% for the first time...in memory.
With more "crashing" forecast for the global economy, Jamaican lending institutions are probably approaching the limits of how low "secure" interest rates will fall.

Scotia Jamaica has created a new loan facility for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and homeowners wishing to purchase renewable energy systems.
The loan offer, at a rate of 9.75 per cent per annum, is now available to SMEs and individual residential mortgage customers, Scotia announced on Friday.
An unsecured rate of 15.99 per cent is also available under this special package, added the financial institution.

Customers of Scotia Jamaica Building Society can access a maximum loan amount of $2 million at a fixed interest rate of 9.75 per cent for the first three years, after which it reverts to the existing standard rate. The maximum loan term is five years.
For small and medium business enterprises, the interest rate of 9.75 per cent is fixed for the life of the loan.
The term of life is five years.

Scotia's base lending rate is currently 15.75 per cent.

The energy loan is the first of its kind for Scotia. It can be applied to a range of projects including the installation of solar panels, solar water heaters, the setting up of grid panels and the purchase of equipment to support green energy systems installation.

Observer Link:
www.jamaicaobserver.com/business/Scotiabank-offers-single-digit-loans-for-renewa ble-energy_12406963


Side Story: Electricity Theft & JPS Add-on Costs
The Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS), the monopoly distributor of electricity across the island, lamented this past weekend that it has lost US$30 million to electricity theft so far this year, and spends another US$30 million annually on technology to curb the piracy. Combined, that represents the equivalent of J$5.4 billion that inflates the cost of power to Jamaican households and businesses teetering on the edge of survival.

"About 14 per cent of the electricity produced by JPS is stolen, and the cost of this theft is shared by both JPS and our customers"...Of course, that's not the whole story. Jamaica's electricity costs are meteoric because of JPS's outdated plants, which deliver energy inefficiently.

Scores, if not hundreds, of businesses that have foundered name electricity cost to be among the main reasons, if not the primary one, for their collapse. Jamaica pays up to US$0.40 per kilowatt-hour for energy...six times that of Trinidad and Tobago.

Gleaner Link:
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20120903/cleisure/cleisure1.html