Bahamas Eco-Forum

Minor Energy Concessions in Government Budget

by Larry Smith

Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham tabled a $1.5 billion budget in Parliament last week, acknowledging a slowdown in economic growth (2.8% in 2007 from a projected 3.1%) together with higher inflation (2.5% in 2007 from 1.8% in 2006).

The biggest policy announcement was new legislation to promote the redevelopment of Nassau and investment in several poorer out islands.

Capital spending will focus on improving the New Providence road network, dredging Nassau harbour, redeveloping the Lynden Pindling and Marsh Harbour airports, and laying out new public housing estates on New Providence and Abaco.

The budget included a two-year suspension of the 17 per cent tax levied by the government on the Bahamas Electricity Corporation's fuel imports. Officials had been reviewing the need to raise electricity rates by 9 per cent a year (the rate plus surcharge is presently 35 cents per kilowatt/hour), but the tax holiday will obviate this.

BEC paid almost $20 million in import taxes last year. The taxes that would have been paid over the next two years will be offset against what the government owes BEC, giving a net capital contribution to the corporation.

Although a special public/private sector committee is working on a national energy policy, only a handful of minor energy concessions were featured in the budget. They included the elimination of import duties on compact fluorescent lightbulbs, solar lamps, batteries, converters and wind turbines.

Import duties on energy-efficient home appliances, windows, low-flow shower heads and low-flow toilets were reduced to 15%.

The duty on hybrid (gasoline-electric) vehicles was cut from between 45% and 65% to 25% (all electric vehicles were not mentioned).

Hybrids are not currently available in the Bahamas for technical reasons, although both Toyota and Honda are talking with their local representatives. But even with the reduced duty, the local price of a Honda or Toyota hybrid will be around $38,000.

BEC Calls for Renewable Energy Bids

by Larry Smith

BEC's long-awaited request for proposals to supply renewable energy in the Bahamas was issued today.

Proposals are requested to supply power on any island serviced by BEC using one of the following candidate technologies:

1. Solar Power (including Solar Thermal and Photovoltaics).
2. Wind Power.
3. Waste to Energy/Biomass.
4. Hydrokinetics (including Ocean Wave and Ocean Tidal Systems).

Bidders must submit details on experience and past performance with similar projects, capabilities and personnel, and financial resources. BEC says it wants the option to take an ownership position in any  projects that are selected, and will evaluate five- to 25-year BOO as well as BOOT proposals.

Bidders must pay a fee of "$0.50/kW of name plate capacity" after receiving notice that they have been shortlisted. This is to ensure that the proposal has been carefully considered and represents a binding offer.

BEC says it must be granted "any and all current and/or future renewable energy certificates and emissions credits associated with the energy from the successful project. In addition, BEC will be granted all accredited capacity from the proposed project. If the pricing is contingent on any carbon incentives, the Proposer should indicate the price with and without the incentive."

Also required is a feasibility study, environmental impact assessment, a site plan and a community outreach plan.

Bid documents are available at BEC's head office for a fee of $100 for foreign applicants and $50 for local applicants.

BEC's Renewable Energy Committee can be contacted at rtc@bahamaselectricity.com.

See the easlier post on this website for background.

Livestock and Global Warming

by Larry Smith

In a fiery and funny talk at TED, the Internet clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world's most inspired thinkers, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman condemned the way we eat and why it's putting the entire planet at risk.

"nearly one fifth of all greenhouse gas is generated by livestock production - more than transportation," he said. "You can make all the jokes you want about cow farts, but methane is 20 times more poisonous than CO2.

"Livestock is also one of the biggest culprits in land degradation, air and water pollution, water shortages. and loss of biodiversity. Half the antiobiotics in this country are not administered to people but to animals.

"There's no question that so-called lifestyle diseases are far more prevalent as a direct result of eating a Western diet. Overconsumption of animals (and junk food) is the root of our problem. The evidence is clear that plants promote health."

Bittman points out that 70 per cent of agricultural land on Earth - and 30 per cent of the total land surface - is devoted to raising the animals we all eat. And we don't need meat to remain healthy. In fact, quite the opposite.

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.

The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes.  

This site (http://www.ted.com) makes the best talks and performances from TED available to the public, for free. More than 200 talks are now available, with more added each week.

Sustainable Energy Forum Set for Grenada in June

contributed by Dawn Marshall

The first Caribbean Sustainable Energy Forum will be held June 23-27 in Grenada as part of the 4th Caribbean Environmental Forum and Exhibition.

The conference will bring together a number of sectoral interests including water, sanitation, waste, climate and land management. It will provide a platform to exchange knowledge and information on energy programmes, projects and initiatives throughout the region.

The conference is supported by the Caribbean Renewable Energy Development Programme and funded by the German Government and the Austrian Development Cooperation.

The keynote speaker will be Angela Cropper, deputy executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme. Conference sessions will be held at St George's University. More details are available at...

  www.Cehi.org.lc/website/index.htm

AES Invests Heavily in Renewables

contributed by Bill Bardelmeier

Global power producer, AES Corp, has been investing heavily in alternative energy projects, including a landfill gas project in El Salvador.

The Virginia-based company has been seeking Bahamas government approval to build a regasification plant for liquified natural gas on Ocean Cay off Bimini for years. The plant would supply gas imported from Trinidad via pipeline to power plants in South Florida.

The US imported 10.71 million tons of LNG in 2007. Prices have increased to almost $12 per million energy units compared to $ 17 for heavy oil.

The landfill gas plant in El Salvador will produce 25 megawatts of energy, using methane that would otherwise contribute to global warming. Methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

AES has also invested a billion dollars in solar projects and has been aggressively expanding its wind generation business with projects in Europe and the United States. The company owns hundreds of traditional power plants in more than two dozen countries.

The Gift of Free Solar Power

by Christian Henry
chenry@capesystemslimited.com

What’s better than free? 

The Bahamas has been blessed with gifts of sun, sand and sea.  Because these gifts are free, we take them for granted. But how can we honour these gifts? 

We are given stewardship of the Earth, and the greatest gift in the Bahamas is our people. So when you see your neighbours saving energy by harnessing the free sun to heat their water, what do you do?  If you are following the pack these days, you are turning free sun into cash savings with solar hot water.

A teacher of mine always told us to KISS: “Keep it simple, stupid.”  But when it comes to hot water right now, we have it complicated.

Virgin Islands RFP Gets 14 Bids

contributed by Doug Cotton

More than a dozen companies have responded to the US Virgin Islands' recent call for proposals to supply non-oil produced energy to the V.I. Water and Power Authority.

The proposals include several ocean thermal energy conversion, wind power, geothermal energy, coal and an inter-island connection cable between St. Croix and St. Thomas. The bidders are from throughout the Caribbean and the United States.

WAPA's evaluation team has begun the process of deciding which proposal will be the best fit for the territory. Evaluators will be guided by consultants Boston Pacific, R.W. Beck and Skadden Arps, as well as ex-officio team members including WAPA Executive Director Hugo Hodge Jr. and the authority's legal
counsel.

Ensuring that the small power provider will produce electricity at a lower cost than WAPA's existing generators will be a major factor in the selection, but environmental sustainability and the amount of time needed to come into operation also will be considered.

The selection committee will announce the winner on June 30. WAPA and the winner then will begin negotiating terms for the contract. 

Negawatts—an Abundant, Clean Energy Source

contributed by Graham Seiner

In 1989, Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute coined the term "negawatts" for conserved energy - defining a negawatt as one megawatt of electricity conserved for one hour.

By most accounts, we waste a third or more of the electricity we produce, making conserved energy potentially one of our most abundant and clean energy resources.

According to Glenn Croston, writing at RenewaleEnergyWorld.com, producing   negawatts by investing in energy efficiency can free up significant generating capacity.

In fact, energy efficiency certificates have been implemented in Europe and in three US states - Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Nevada. Like carbon trading, the goal is to develop a market for the trading of certificates, to encourage conservation.

in Connecticut, where the trading program began in 2007, the state requires utilities to ramp up the contribution of efficiency projects to 4% of their energy portfolio over a period of three years. a national market for negawatts in the US may eventually result.

There are a variety of ways in which energy-efficiency certificates can be used to encourage energy efficiency. One use being advanced by IBM is to bundle energy-efficiency certificates with sales of energy-efficient mainframes. The customer can then resell the certificates or hold on to them to demonstrate their contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions through increased energy efficiency.

Some variation on this theme should be considered by the recently appointed Energy Policy Committee to encourage energy conservation in the Bahamas, even if only as a promotional exercise.