Guyana taking serious steps to promote energy conservation

Georgetown : The Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) is spearheading several energy audits on government buildings to determine their levels of electricity consumption and tailor conservation practices that can be adopted.

Head of the GEA Dr. Mahender Sharma told the Government Information Agency (GINA) that audits have been conducted on over 30 buildings and made reference to the Agency’s strategic plan that speaks specifically to such undertakings.

Meanwhile, the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) will be undertaking a similar programme with support from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), targeting private businesses.

Prime Minister Samuel Hinds who spoke about this development at an energy forum organised by the GEA on Friday, highlighted the fact that the latter intervention is still in its fledgling stages.

Only recently a three-member technical team of specialists from The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in Delhi, India came to Guyana to examine a best practices manual to promote energy management and conservation of rice mills, a technical study to improve sugar production energy efficiency, investments in Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI), and demand management and gasifier technology application for sawmills.

The GEA has been focusing on the potential to develop several renewable energy initiatives. Among them are, solar and wind power, bio-ethanol plant, bio gas and solar water heaters to name a few.