Georgetown: CARICOM Energy Week, concluded today as calls were made for energy conservation to be at the top of the national agenda.
Under the theme, ‘Sustainable Energy Powering a Green economy’ and as part of activities, the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) hosted a forum at the Guyana International Conference Centre (GICC) aimed at providing a platform for stakeholders to discuss sustainable energy in the various ministries, agencies and sectors. The event lasted one week.
This year, the Community is focusing mainly on building awareness about energy conservation and efficiency, and the development of renewable energy. Currently, the Region depends heavily on imported petroleum and petroleum products to the tune of US$9 billion per annum over the last few years.
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds referred to the Photo Voltaic system grid tie in that has been installed at the GEA building. “As we look to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, we look in various directions into conserving energy into lifestyle changes. We look at improving the efficiency of the energy that we now use, and to support that we have at this time at least 2 programmes of auditing that we have undertaken in Guyana.”
Referring to a recent visit to India where he witnessed the re-development of bio mass on a smaller scale level, PM Hinds said Government is looking forward to “receiving the offer from the Government of India for a rice husk bio mass gasifier that might help to both supply some energy at the level of 50 to 60 KVA and also eliminate a source of pollution that has been of some contention in the Mahaica area.”
Head of the GEA, Dr. Mahender Sharma noted that the 8.4 kilowatt grid feed solar PV system on the GEA building, “is a working example right here in Guyana and we want to encourage more of this and we want to talk to you about the environmental and economic benefits and most importantly how the people of Guyana can benefit from sustainable energy development.”
Calls by stakeholders were also made for more national renewable efforts being shared by neighboring countries and welcomed the initiative of Energy Week which is taking place simultaneously across several countries across the Caribbean as part of this effort to raise awareness.
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