Guardian ( Trinidad and Tobago )
14 April 2023 ( Page 12 )
Local investors must spur non-carbon energy drive
It’s very encouraging news that T&T has embarked
upon a project to decisively enter the alternative
energy grid.
On Wednesday, bp and Shell came together to launch
this country’s irst utility-scale solar energy project in
Couva.
Ultimately, the mission of the two mega energy
corporations, which have been operating here for
decades and have made signiicant contributions to
the economy, is to supply 130MW of renewable power
to the national grid.
The establishment of the plant is a direct response to
a request from Government.
One efect of the project will be a reduction in the use
of natural gas-powered electricity in an estimated
42,000 homes, according to bpTT’s executive vice
president, Gas and Lower Carbon Energy, Anja
Dotzenrath, leaving the natural gas to be sold on the
international market.
Shell’s senior vice president and country chair,
Eugene Okpere, also sees the project as having the
efect of lowering the carbon future of T&T.
At the ceremony, however, Prime Minister Dr Keith
Rowley recognised the double-edge sword problem of
T&T moving into non-carbon energy projects at the
same time that the extraction, processing and
exportation of hydrocarbons remain at the centre of
the local economy.
The PM underscored that T&T will continue to make
use of its oil and gas reserves into the future.
Nevertheless, the reality is that the vast majority of
countries, T&T included, have agreed to cut back
their dependence on atmosphere-polluting
substances by signing on to the Paris Agreement.
Like everywhere else in the world, the reality of
global warming, looding, inundation of small islands
and a range of environmental disasters are impacting
our country and region.
With one eye on making use of what T&T has to sell
to the world to earn a living and the stark reality that
the last 100 years of overutilisation of hydrocarbons
has brought the world to this point, citizens must
also, therefore, be both conscious of our contribution
to such environmental disasters and to ind ways and
means to utilise other natural forms of raw energy.
T&T, as a nation in this age of growing use of
technology allied to energy from the wind and the
sun, large quantities of which we are blessed with,
must utilise such options.
There are two obvious possible engagements that the
Government and country should be concerned with
as it embarks on the pursuit of non-hydrocarbon
energy. One is the absolute need for the local private
sector to become involved in energy-generating
projects to utilise the natural resources available. The
T&T business and production industry cannot again
sit and wait on foreign investors to become the
exclusive owners of the economy and then face the
consequences of non-participation in ownership and
management.
The second need is for the Government to be very
conscious about making arrangements for the supply
of power to T&TEC by intermediate companies. One
result of such previous arrangements is that the
commission has to purchase 400MW of power it
cannot use.
So yes, utilize foreign capital and technology, but
surely, local enterprise must be involved in the
management and utilization of that which we are
surrounded by