St. Lucia On Road To Secure Energy Future

THE Ministry of Sustainable Development, Energy, Science and Technology held its second energy fair for this month at the Mega J Parking Lot in Choc Estate on Saturday and despite the persistent rain, the event was hailed a success by the organizers.

Bernice Joseph energy officer in the Ministry of Sustainable Development, Energy, Science and Technology told The VOICE, “Today we have the private sector energy fair. It’s one of our activities as part of our Energy Awareness Week. This year we have extended it to a whole month of activities. We started off with a private sector fair in Vieux Fort on November 14 and today we have the private sector fair in Castries at the Mega J Car Park. This is the second year into it”.

She said the idea was to bring out to the public, Saint Lucians as a whole, what products are available to them locally, so they don’t have to outsource the products, and to let them know a little more about energy efficiency and renewable energy products that they could use.

She added: “We have LUCELEC, Scotia Bank and we have the private sector companies. They have the technologies. The bank is available to tell you what loans, what special deals you can get, if you and going into energy efficiency products or if you’re going into renewable energy. And there’s LUCELEC here to let you all know what is available to the customers, it’s part of our campaign to let people know “Let’s go into energy efficiency products.”

The participating companies were LUCELEC, CARILEC, Precision Surveillance, Scotia Bank, ECO Caribe, Caribbean LED Lighting St. Lucia, Caribbean Awning, Virghen Consultancy, Solar Connection, Eastern Caribbean Wind and Solar, Unicomer – (Courts St. Lucia), Healthy Harvest, Vibes Electric, Innogen Technologies, LED Unlimited (John C. Francis) and Cyen

Joseph said the installation of PV has increased over the last few years and at present we have over 300 kw of PV systems installed over St. Lucia alone. “We are hoping that it will increase. The Ministry is on board with a number of initiatives as well. We have a solar project going on in Vieux Fort; we have the wind test tower going up in Dennery, and we also have our studies on geothermal energy. So the Ministry is looking forward to a future for Saint Lucian energy – a secure future”, she said, adding:

“Next on the line, as part of our energy awareness month of activities, we’re actually having an energy Kilo Walk scheduled for December 6. It’s free. Persons are asked to come in, to register on you can register online. You can register at our ministries. Forms have been sent to a number of schools and different business places. The route is through Marisule into Corinth and Union. After the Kilo Walk there will also be an exhibition of items energy efficient items, renewable energy items – on display and in addition a number of prizes and giveaways. Remember it’s a FREE walk”.