New sources of renewable energy being explored – Energy Agency head

Guyana like other Caribbean countries remains highly dependent on the use of fossil fuel and continues to face a towering fuel importation bill, Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) Chief Executive Officer Mahendra Sharma said.
Speaking at a recent seminar for stakeholders last Friday at the Guyana International Conference Centre, Greater Georgetown, Sharma said Guyana is gradually moving away from its dependence on fossil fuels, noting that with the establishment of the Amaila Falls Hydro Project, more progress will be made in this regard.
“The Amaila Falls Hydro Project is 165 megawatts – our peak demand in September actually was 107 megawatts. With 165 megawatts, we would obviously have more than what we currently need,” Sharma stated.
While the project will help in the creation of more energy resources, the GEA head said that this will not be sufficient enough for the continuous demand and growing population in the coming years. Therefore, discussions with stakeholders have already commenced and will look at new ways of developing renewable energy for citizens. This is being done since demand is expected to increase.
Sharma said depending on the economic development anticipated within a few years of the commercial operation of the hydro, the GEA will need to look for other sources of energy and stakeholders are already discussing those options now.

He, however, stated that “The Amaila project will transform the electricity sector from almost 95 per cent on fossil fuel, to one that will move to being reliant on renewable energy.”
European Union (EU) representative to the Caricom, Clavs Joachim Jakobs, also reiterated the need for Caribbean countries to reduce its dependence on fossil fuel, and focus on renewable energy.
“Import requirements of fossil fuel are drain in these countries hard earned currency resources. Thus, diversifying the resources used for energy production is needed to endure the region’s sustainable development.”
The EU places considerable importance on sustainable energy and has provided much needed support to the African Caribbean and Pacific (AFC), the Organisation of American States (OAS) and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECES) member states, among other countries.
The EU currently has an energy initiative where 1.5 million euros was allocated to the Caribbean. The project is being implemented through the Caricom Secretariat.
Recently, Guyana signed an agreement with Clinton Foundation’s Climate Initiative on renewable energy. The agreement commits the Clinton Climate Initiative to the service of the Guyana government in an advisory capacity with a team of experts in business “to package programmes for renewable energy that have a commercial capability to attract major financing,” Clinton Foundation’s Climate Initiative Clean Energy Director Jan Hartke said.