2030 doubtful

Governor of the Central Bank Cleviston Haynes has expressed doubt that the island can achieve the Government’s “desirable but ambitious” goal of becoming fully reliant on renewable energy by 2030.

However, he said it was vital for the country to set the target to make that energy shift even if it occurred later than hoped.

Although acknowledging that momentum toward reaching the goal was building, Haynes admitted on Wednesday he was not surprised the country was behind the target.

“The 2030 plan has always been an ambitious objective. It is desirable but ambitious…. Will we get there by 2030? I am no expert in that area but maybe we won’t,” he said in response to questions from journalists during his quarterly economic review at the Frank Collymore Hall.

“But I think we have to set these ambitious targets so as to drive the process because there is no doubt that what we want to do is to transition to alternative energy. If we don’t get there by 2030, if we get there by 2032 or 2035, I think that still allows us to achieve our objective.

“So, I am not totally surprised if we may not be quite there, but I think what one is beginning to see is a lot more momentum. When we talk to the commercial banks they are mentioning the number of projects which they have and which they want to be able to finance,” the Central Bank Governor added.

Minister of Energy Kerrie Symmonds recently revealed that as of October 1, 2022, only 11.8 per cent of the targeted 750 megawatts of renewable energy capacity required by 2030 had been connected to the national grid.

“As you would appreciate, there were some regulatory issues that were causing some of the delays. So, what we are hopeful of is that as these projects come on stream and we ramp up, we will begin to see faster adoption of alternative energy, whether it is for electricity or whether it is for transportation,” Haynes said.

His comments also came against the background of a major increase in the country’s fuel import bill, which was $836.8 million for the first nine months of this year, or 26 per cent of total imports for the period. Total imports for January to September 2022 stood at $3.029 billion, compared to $2.183 million for the same period last year.

In addition to harnessing electricity from renewable energy sources, the island is expected to transition from diesel and gas-powered vehicles to electric and hybrid ones.

“You know that earlier this year, the Government made some concessions to be able to accelerate alternative energy for transportation, but the challenge, as I understand it, is that access to vehicles is not as easy as one would like. So, that slows the process down, and a fair amount of energy is utilised in transportation,” Haynes said.

“So we need to be able to address that sort of stumbling block to be able to accelerate the penetration of alternative energy into the market.”

A breakdown of the data for the island’s total fuel imports shows that gasoline accounted for 14 per cent, fuel oil 25 per cent, diesel 12 per cent, jet fuel 22 per cent, gas oils 7 per cent, and other fuel imports 20 per cent.

marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb