Int’l organisation to help Barbados reach full reliance on renewable energy

Barbados is getting help from the Austria-headquartered Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) to accelerate its ambitious goal of becoming 100 per cent reliant on renewable forms of energy.
The firm which has done major work in Nigeria is also expected to help the Barbados National Oil Company Limited (BNOCL) transition from an oil and gas provider to a modern energy provider.
Minister of Energy Senator Lisa Cummins made the disclosure on Monday while noting that Barbados did not have time on its side when it came to implementing the new Energy Transition and Investment Plan which replaces the Barbados National Energy Policy 2019-2030.
SEforALL, which has satellite offices in Washington DC and in New York, describes itself as an international organisation that works in partnership with the United Nations (UN) and leaders in government, private sector, financial institutions, civil society and philanthropies to drive faster action towards the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 7. That goal is to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.
During a press conference at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre to speak about the collaboration, Cummins said the Government was keen on transitioning the BNOCL and the National Petroleum Corporation (NPC).
“We have asked the SEforALL team . . . to identify a person, an expert in the area, who can help us to transition those two entities, in particular the Barbados National Oil Company, away from being what we call it – the oil company – into now an energy company that takes into account the energy transition goals we are setting for ourselves. And so you will see that evolving as well with the support of the UN and SEforALL team,” she announced.
The BNOCL is currently responsible for the local distribution of petroleum resources. It is expected that its transition, which falls in line with the Government’s intention of achieving 100 per cent reliance on renewable energy sources by 2030, will result in a range of new revenue streams for the state-owned company.
Officials from SEforALL and the UN are participating in a two-day stakeholder workshop in Barbados, hosted by the Ministry of Energy, to identify needed changes for the wider energy plan to ensure the island achieves its renewable energy targets within the set time, and identify barriers and possible solutions.
As it relates to the wider Energy Transition and Investment Plan, SEforALL is expected to establish an “energy transition office” in Barbados to help with the implementation of the measures that will enable the country to achieve its renewable energy targets.
Among other things, officials are expected to calculate the level of investment that will be needed over the next seven years for the various renewable energy options, the sources of capital, and what sizes of the various types of energy systems are now needed.
The plan, which is to be fleshed out over the next five months, is to also take into consideration the specific needs of the various sectors.
Authorities are hoping that by the end of September, there will be concrete information so that aggressive implementation can commence.
Cummins declared that Barbados had a lot of “heavy lifting ahead” while noting that a lot of tough decisions had to be made and there was no time for delay in doing so given the country only had seven more years to achieve the renewable energy targets.
“What that means is that there is no time for us to lag. We have to make critical decisions and we have to make critical decisions now,” she said.
Delivering the keynote address at the opening session of the workshop ahead of her press conference, Cummins said a considerable amount of groundwork has already been done, in collaboration with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), towards the transitioning of the BNOCL and NPC.
“We were in retreat with our national oil company and National Petroleum Company in February of this year to begin the process of positioning them to transition away from an exclusive dependence on oil and gas into a renewable future and where they need to go in a transition that is set for 2030,” she said.
(MM)