Go Lean…Caribbean

Go Lean Commentary

While the Caribbean is among the best addresses on the planet, it is among the most expensive energy-wise.

So what is the Way Forward for optimizing our energy infrastructure?

While we need to look forward, we also need to look backwards. This was the assertion of the 2013 book Go Lean … Caribbean, which advocates for the installation and deployment of a regional power grid heavily dependent on wind energy. The book states (Page 113):

The Bottom Line on Alternative Energy
The economic history of the Caribbean featured wind power on the merchant sail ships to and from Europe and the African continent during the Slave Trade. Now 250 years later, wind is a source of economic energy once again – this time to power wind turbines to generate electricity for power grids. The winds are so consistent for portions of the Caribbean that the eastern island chain is branded the Windward Islands.

The region also has two other sources for alternative energy: solar and tidal. There is no plan to build or use nuclear energy, beyond any existing facilities. After the Fukushima incident in Japan, March 2011, the economic impact of nuclear is too negative – tourism may be impacted.

The Go Lean book relates a vision of transforming to 100% renewable energy in the Caribbean, asserting that this could bring the energy cost down from one of the highest in the world to one of the lowest. The book continues:

The … installation of a multi-national/regional power grid [will mean] power-sharing between member-states. The end result being lower costs (from $.35/kWh to $.088), lower pollution and less imports of foreign oil – granting energy independence.

This is not just a theoretical plan. No, there are glimpses of this strategy already in motion – for wind – in the Caribbean and the results-successes are undeniable. See this actuality in this sample news article here:

Title: Wind Farm Saves Jamaica $54M on Oil Imports, Energy Minister Says
By: Oswald T. Brown 

April 17, 2019 – Jamaican Energy Minister Fayval Williams said Wigton Windfarm Limited has saved the country’s government over $54 million on oil imports.

The energy minister, speaking Friday at Wigton Windfarm’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) investor briefing at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in Rose Hall, St. James, said the production of clean energy from the facility has enabled the country to avoid the purchase of 800,000 barrels of oil, and the emission of one million tons of carbon dioxide, thereby reducing the country’s carbon footprint, the Jamaica Gleaner reported.

Wigton, located in Rose Hill, South Manchester, is the largest wind energy facility in the English-speaking Caribbean.

The company, which is a subsidiary of the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ), began operating in 2004 with the commissioning of a 20.7 megawatt-generating plant, Wigton I.

This was followed by the development of Wigton II in 2010, which generates 18 megawatts of energy. Wigton III, the 24-megawatt expansion of the facility, was officially commissioned into service in June 2016 by Prime Minister Andrew Holness.

Williams commended the company for the progress made since its inception and lauded the IPO as a “bold strategy.”

“I can say that I am truly pleased with the strides that Wigton has made over these years,” she said. “The growth in [renewable energy] globally will undoubtedly bring greater investment opportunities in the future for a company like Wigton and we want Jamaica to be a part of this growing global movement in an even greater way. I believe we have the will and the capacity, and as a government, we are putting the plans in place to ensure that we maximize our renewable energy potential.”

Jamaicans will have the opportunity to purchase shares in Wigton from when the IPO opened on April 17 to its closure on May 1.

Source: Retrieved April 19, 2019 from: https://washingtoninformer.com/wind-farm-saves-jamaica-54m-on-oil-imports-energy-minister-says/

This news article depicts the manifestation of wisdom and best practices – a delivery from the Go Lean book. This is the Way Forward for Energy for the Caribbean region.

This commentary continues the consideration on the Way Forward for the full Caribbean and the individual member-states. This submission here focuses on energy while many others in the series contemplated how the member-states can reform and transform their societies. This is entry 7-of-9 for this April 2019 compilation of commentaries; (the list started as 3, grew dynamically to 6 and will finalized with 9). The full series of commentaries related to the Way Forward is presented as follows:

1. Way Forward: Puerto Rico learns its “status” with America
2. Way Forward: Virgin Islands – America’s youngest colony
3. Way Forward: Bahamas – “Solutions White Paper” – An Inadequate Plan
4. Way Forward: Jamaica: The need to reconcile the Past
5. Way Forward: Caribbean Media Strategy & Deliveries
6. Way Forward: Strategy for Justice: Special Prosecutors et al
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7. Way Forward: Strategy for Energy – ‘Trade’ Winds
8. Way Forward: Strategy for Independence – Territory Realities
9. Way Forward: “Whatever it takes” – Life Imitating Art

This series posits that “no man is an island” and further that “no island is an island”; so the technocratic deployments for energy – as for other strategies – need the benefits of a leveraged confederacy, as in the Caribbean Union ‘Trade‘ Federation (CU). It is the assertion here that the political Caribbean can elevate society with implementations to harness the trade winds, on the land, at  the coast, and in the territorial waters:

Cape Cod Wind Farm, Massachusetts, USA

Trade winds; how ironic!?

Yellow = Westerly Trade Winds

This is the same natural phenomena – Westerlies – that propelled commercial interest in the Caribbean / New World region; with the ease of westerly winds, this actuality can now contribute to sustainable energy deliveries. We need to pay attention to the “colors of the wind” – see Appendix B VIDEO below.

As related in a previous blog-commentary, wind is not the only option for our alternative energy Way Forward. The full universe of alternative options may include hydro-electric – at waterfalls – and geo-thermal at hot-springs and/or geysers – in volcano zones. Coupled with the implementation of a regional grid, these benefits are too attractive to ignore: environmental (no fossil fuels) and economic (affording conveniences of modern life). While only some Caribbean member-states have the natural features to pursue these foregoing options, all of the 30 member states, on the other hand, can ideally take advantage of these options here:

• Wind – The wind always blows in the Caribbean – i.e. Trade Winds – and its free.
• Solar – The sun always shines in the Caribbean and its free. Some member-states are implementing this option now to great fanfare and great results. See the news story in the Appendix A below.
• Tidal – The tides always rise and fall in the Caribbean and its free..

This theme – environmental and economic benefits of alternative energy – aligns with many previous commentaries from the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean; see this sample list here:

Basic needs are not just limited to food, clothing and shelter in our modern times. No, energy deliveries must be counted as a basic need too. This is why our Caribbean communities spend so much of their family, community and national budgets on electricity supplies (or oil imports); this accounts to a lot of the economic pie. But the consideration for energy in our region goes beyond economics, there is also the consideration for “standards of care”. Our reality in the Summer heat – think: ‘Hotter than July‘ – is that we need air-conditioning solutions. Otherwise life in the homeland is unbearable.

So our Way Forward for Green Energy solution is for the motivation for economic optimization and environmental impact.

Environmental considerations also include combating Climate Change; this is important for Caribbean stakeholders, as Climate Change is one of the great threats that imperil our lives and livelihoods. Our status quo is that we must be prepared in our disaster planning to ‘Rinse and Repeat’ every hurricane season.

Wind energy is therefore a win-win for the Caribbean; solar too – see Appendix A below. The Caribbean energy needs are undeniable. The effects of fossil-fueled-driven Climate Change are undeniable. Lastly, the need for alternate energy, to lower the costs of living in the Caribbean, is undeniable. We hereby urge all Caribbean stakeholders – citizens, businesses and government leaders – to lean-in to this Go Lean … Caribbean roadmap.

This is how we can make the Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play.  🙂

About the Book
The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society – for all member-states. This CU/Go Lean roadmap has these 3 prime directives:

• Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs.
• Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
• Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society.

Download the free e-Book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Who We Are
The movement behind the Go Lean book – a non-partisan, apolitical, religiously-neutral Community Development Foundation chartered for the purpose of empowering and re-booting economic engines – stresses that reforming and transforming the Caribbean societal engines must be a regional pursuit. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 13):

xi. Whereas all men are entitled to the benefits of good governance in a free society, “new guards” must be enacted to dissuade the emergence of incompetence, corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the peril of the people’s best interest. The Federation must guarantee the executions of a social contract between government and the governed.

xvi. Whereas security of our homeland is inextricably linked to prosperity of the homeland, the economic and security interest of the region needs to be aligned under the same governance. Since economic crimes … can imperil the functioning of the wheels of commerce for all the citizenry, the accedence of this Federation must equip the security apparatus with the tools and techniques for predictive and proactive interdictions.

xxiv. Whereas a free market economy can be induced and spurred for continuous progress, the Federation must install the controls to better manage aspects of the economy: jobs, inflation, savings rate, investments and other economic principles. Thereby attracting direct foreign investment because of the stability and vibrancy of our economy.

Sign the petition to lean-in for this roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.

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Appendix A – Historic Day on Union Island with electricity produced solely from solar

April 16, 2019 – For the very first time during the day, electricity on Union Island was produced using solely solar photovoltaic (PV) and battery energy storage.

“Today’s historic event is possible after the successful completion of the Union Island Solar PV and Battery Energy Storage project last month. Over the past weeks, we have been testing the system to ensure the process runs smoothly. The Company is pleased with the outcome in this noteworthy project,” a post on VINLEC’s Facebook page said on Tuesday.

“In the near future, the solar PV farm will generate electricity on the island during the day to supply to the grid. We anticipate that on sunny days, the solar plant will generate excess electricity than is required to supply the average daytime load on the island. The excess electricity will be stored in batteries. The expected annual energy output is approximately 32 per cent of the electricity generated in Union Island in 2018.

“VINLEC wishes to express sincerest thanks to the residents of Union Island for their support and understanding during this process,” the post said.

The UAE-CREF Union Island 600KW Solar PV Battery Hybrid Power Plant was officially opened on March 25, 2019. The project was funded under the UAE Caribbean Renewable Energy Fund at a cost of US$3 million and developed in collaboration with VINLEC on behalf of the Government of SVG.

The Solar Power Plant displaces 320,000 litres of diesel fuel per year at savings of EC$500,000.00.

Source: Retrieved April 20, 2019 from: https://searchlight.vc/searchlight/press-release/2019/04/16/historic-day-on-union-island-with-electricity-produced-solely-from-solar/?fbclid=IwAR3E4tyrnqKbveKKZAF0R1bPlglav2rWCkyOZTL1zxv_O9xZfdEOd2tQB9Y

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Appendix B VIDEO – Pocahontas | Colors of the Wind | Disney Sing-Along – https://youtu.be/O9MvdMqKvpU

Disney
Published on Jul 9, 2016 – Paint with all the colors of the wind for this sing along.

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