well thanks al good afternoon everybody
let me just ask and see a show of hands
who’s heard of renewable energy right
that’s good so that’s everybody that’s
great
who’s seen a renewable energy system
yeah yeah everybody who’s seen one in
the BVI owe a lot less and who’s seen
this one up behind me right there okay
actually the few people have I’m
actually noticing there’s a lot of the
ownership and management teams in the
audience tonight that have been
pioneering the way for renewable energy
in the outer islands so I’d like to talk
to you today about the renewable energy
systems in the BVI or at least the
largest ones I’d like to talk to you
about where we are with the current law
surrounding renewable energy what some
of the problems that we face are and why
we need to unite as a community towards
a renewable energy future most systems
are in the outer islands and I want to
talk about these systems because they
are micro examples of what’s possible on
the larger Islands of Tortola Virgin
Gorda Anegada and Jost Van Dyck Cooper
Island is a hybrid renewable energy
system which means that they use
renewable energy and diesel energy and
batteries to store all that energy they
prefer the renewable energy over the
diesel and so quickly
the resort starts to save money on
diesel diesel engine maintenance and
diesel delivery Cooper Island produces
85 percent of their energy from the Sun
even though they produce all their water
and all of their beer
eustacia Island is exactly the same
thing essentially except they’ve used
these very pretty
see-through panels and they’ve also used
a Tesla power pack Tesla
one of the leading companies in the
world in battery manufacturing poised to
revolutionize the battery world I’d less
also like to point out that their diesel
engine their diesel generator doesn’t
ever run because they produce 99% of
their energy from the Sun they donated
their previous system to the national
parks trust as well so this is Necker
Island Necker Island is the largest
solar array in the BVI it’s 360
kilowatts currently they’re using about
1/3 of this capacity because they’ve yet
to install the batteries but once they
install the batteries and move towards
wind power they’ll be trying to produce
all of their energy from renewable power
peter island peter island is creating
35% of their energy from these two wind
turbines they intend to expand their
renewable energy production in the near
future and we do look forward to that
they’ll be using 65 percent renewable
energy after that expansion will not bei
will not bei although not a micro grid
is producing about half of its daytime
load using renewable energy and this is
all in one of their warehouse roofs in
deep bay up in virgin gorda so where are
we with the law its 2017 and we still
don’t have a functioning renewable
energy policy
it used to be completely illegal to
produce your own primary power from
renewables it became legal in 2015 after
an amendment to the law which is great
right except not really because we’re
still not allowed to do it to be able to
do it we need to get this regulation
passed through the House of Assembly the
regulation establishes the rules for the
industry
so without the rules we can’t play the
game and we can’t play it safely it’s
like if everyone wanted to be able to
drive but there were no rules for the
road we’d all just get mash up right so
Renewable regulation also establishes
how much energy we can produce and make
sure that the industry grows safely if
we work together we can get these
regulations pushed through so that we
can start to use renewable energy to
save money on our electricity bills let
me see a show of hands who likes to save
money right right everybody let the
record show so later I’m gonna ask
everybody to do a little something about
that other policies that are affecting
renewable energy we have an upside down
energy structure energy rate structure
the price of our electricity goes down
the more of it that we use this is
called a tiered energy rate usually this
structure is the opposite way around
this rate structure makes energy
conservation less important because
they’re saving less money at the higher
end of energy costs it also makes
renewable energy investments less
attractive
it makes the payback period on those
invest investments much longer so I’d
like to change this most of us are in
the first tier but as you move to tier 2
3 & 4 the cost of your energy decreases
by about half why should a low energy
user pay more for electricity than a
high energy user this may have made
sense in the past when energy usage was
being encouraged and economic growth was
being encouraged but now when the BVI
electricity corporation can’t really
keep up with the growing electricity
demand it seems like we’re sending the
wrong message duty rates the duty rate
for renewable energy is too high
renewable energy duty rate
renewable energy goods are currently
taxed at 20%
compare that to a five percent duty
rates for fossil fuel technologies
we’re not even competing on the same
field this becomes a major factor in
renewable energy system cost imagine we
have to add 35% to every system after
shipping in duty this duty assignment
seems to suggest that the BVI is anti
renewable energy but that’s not right as
a member of the organization of Eastern
Caribbean states a willing member of the
carbon war room and a nation committed
to developing renewable energy
shouldn’t we be sending the opposite
message so why do we need to make the
switch from fossil fuel to renewable
energy we’re spending far too much money
on diesel the BVI spends approximately
45 50 million dollars a year in diesel
hands up who thinks that’s a lot of
money yeah yeah me too okay so the cost
of our electricity will only continue to
rise over time as the cost of fuel Rises
the cost of fuel has been artificially
low lately as OPEC has been squeezing
out other energy producers with
renewable energy the cost of electricity
will eventually fall in essence this is
because we’re moving from an expensive
polluting and finite fuel source to a
free clean and infinite fuel source
which you may notice we have in
abundance renewable energy also creates
energy independence our fuel comes from
across the sea on tankers if for some
reason these tankers stop coming then we
may be looking at complete economic
shutdown within a few weeks we do not
have a sufficient fuel reserve reserve
to keep us moving there
many events outside of our control like
war natural disaster and and rising fuel
price any of these could stem the flow
of energy sources to our shores and
bring us back to the days of donkey
carts which I thought was a bad idea
until Thor told me he wants to bring
back the horse and cart so so renewable
energy is always there it’s always all
around us all we have to do is reach out
and take it and nothing can change that
renewable energy creates more skilled
jobs renewable energy sector jobs in the
US have been growing at 12 times the
rate of their economy renewable jobs in
the u.s. now exceed the number of fossil
fuel production jobs this same thing
will happen in the BVI the number of
jobs will increase the quality of those
jobs will be better the jobs will be
cleaner more skilled and higher paying
and it will also expand the skill sets
of those currently employed in the
energy sector renewable energy helps us
take advantage of modern technology we
can produce all the drinking water that
we need using renewable energy the water
filtration technologies these days are
efficient enough where with relatively
small investments we can secure our
water supply while decreasing the cost
of that water Camino Island is a great
example of this and something you had
perhaps not thought about transportable
fuel it’s all good to have stationary
fuel like renewable energy but you also
need to have a transportable fuel that
you can use in your vehicles we can
replace the diesel and gasoline that we
currently use in our engines using
renewable energy we can achieve this by
splitting the water
molecule h2o into hydrogen and oxygen
the oxygen can be bottled stored and
sold we can use the hydrogen in hydrogen
fuel cells to give us transportable fuel
that we need Toyota and Honda and other
car companies are already making
hydrogen fuel cell vehicles let’s
anticipate this change to further secure
our future so what is the future of
renewable energy in the BVI well when we
leave this room we’re going to move to
100% of renewable energy power ASAP we
need to get there as soon as possible
as a community so that we get the energy
savings and and the energy security that
we need before they become major
problems in doing so we’re going to stop
spending millions of dollars and
lighting millions of dollars on fire
literally in various diesel engine
injectors then we are going to use all
of that money for important things like
education cultural development
structural development and also to
secure the water and fuel source that we
desperately need so what do I mean by a
united energy future well it’s a common
misconception that the renewable energy
industry and the fossil fuel industry
are the antithesis of one another this
is not really the case the truth is that
we’re part of the same continuum and
that we’re all working to achieve a
common goal that is to produce enough
electrical engine energy to meet the
growing demands of our market and do so
while keeping the price of that energy
down for the people we’re selling to we
want the solution to transitioning to a
hundred percent renewable to be based on
what creates the greatest good for the
greatest number of people
for the sake of speed this is what I
would suggest the BVI electricity
corporation stays in control of the
majority of the supply of renewable
energy this will create the smoothest
and least disruptive transition to
fossil fuel possible because it can be
properly managed and controlled
we need to carefully regulate renewable
energy production homes and businesses
need to have the ability to produce
their own power from renewable energy
but we exist in a very small market and
so it has to be carefully managed if you
open the doors too wide too soon to
privatize renewable energy we will
almost immediately see problems arising
in the relationship between the BVI
electricity corporation and renewable
energy power producers if you have
energy producers battling for market
share it will ultimately slow down the
transition and this is not what we want
we want to get to a hundred percent as
soon as possible however the BVI
electricity corporation needs to be
mandated to meet these renewable energy
goals and the goals must be binding it
cannot be a choice because the easy
choice is to just keep doing what we’re
doing which is to keep producing energy
from fossil fuel it’s also the more
lucrative choice for some but it doesn’t
benefit all the Ministry of
Communication and works have suggested
that we strive for 30% of the BVI’s
electrical energy to come from renewable
energy by 2023 this is still an
achievable goal but not if we don’t have
an energy policy which promotes the use
of renewable energy together we can make
this happen we are too small of a
community to be at odds on this
initiative our thinking and planning
should be governed by principles that
create the greatest benefit for all of
society
all energy sources should be considered
one industry all energy sources should
push towards a shared objective and that
being abundant low-cost energy most
importantly we need to push this through
the House of Assembly this is the final
piece to the puzzle to allow us to
legally produce renewable energy so to
do this I would like to ask everyone in
the room to do just one thing for me
when you leave here write a letter or
generally harass your House of Assembly
representative I think I see one in the
room actually and ask the representative
in your district to get this regulation
back on the agenda get it finalized get
it agreed upon and get it passed so that
we can improve our world perhaps a
little pressure will go a long way
imagine so there’s a website up here to
find out who your district
representative is you can also find this
on the TEDx websites and you could just
google it the u.s. just pulled out of
the Paris climate Accord hmm boo but
it’s not it’s too late to stop the
snowballing renewable energy industry
let’s take this last step to get on the
gravy train let’s make a better world
for our children thank you
[Applause]
let me just ask and see a show of hands
who’s heard of renewable energy right
that’s good so that’s everybody that’s
great
who’s seen a renewable energy system
yeah yeah everybody who’s seen one in
the BVI owe a lot less and who’s seen
this one up behind me right there okay
actually the few people have I’m
actually noticing there’s a lot of the
ownership and management teams in the
audience tonight that have been
pioneering the way for renewable energy
in the outer islands so I’d like to talk
to you today about the renewable energy
systems in the BVI or at least the
largest ones I’d like to talk to you
about where we are with the current law
surrounding renewable energy what some
of the problems that we face are and why
we need to unite as a community towards
a renewable energy future most systems
are in the outer islands and I want to
talk about these systems because they
are micro examples of what’s possible on
the larger Islands of Tortola Virgin
Gorda Anegada and Jost Van Dyck Cooper
Island is a hybrid renewable energy
system which means that they use
renewable energy and diesel energy and
batteries to store all that energy they
prefer the renewable energy over the
diesel and so quickly
the resort starts to save money on
diesel diesel engine maintenance and
diesel delivery Cooper Island produces
85 percent of their energy from the Sun
even though they produce all their water
and all of their beer
eustacia Island is exactly the same
thing essentially except they’ve used
these very pretty
see-through panels and they’ve also used
a Tesla power pack Tesla
one of the leading companies in the
world in battery manufacturing poised to
revolutionize the battery world I’d less
also like to point out that their diesel
engine their diesel generator doesn’t
ever run because they produce 99% of
their energy from the Sun they donated
their previous system to the national
parks trust as well so this is Necker
Island Necker Island is the largest
solar array in the BVI it’s 360
kilowatts currently they’re using about
1/3 of this capacity because they’ve yet
to install the batteries but once they
install the batteries and move towards
wind power they’ll be trying to produce
all of their energy from renewable power
peter island peter island is creating
35% of their energy from these two wind
turbines they intend to expand their
renewable energy production in the near
future and we do look forward to that
they’ll be using 65 percent renewable
energy after that expansion will not bei
will not bei although not a micro grid
is producing about half of its daytime
load using renewable energy and this is
all in one of their warehouse roofs in
deep bay up in virgin gorda so where are
we with the law its 2017 and we still
don’t have a functioning renewable
energy policy
it used to be completely illegal to
produce your own primary power from
renewables it became legal in 2015 after
an amendment to the law which is great
right except not really because we’re
still not allowed to do it to be able to
do it we need to get this regulation
passed through the House of Assembly the
regulation establishes the rules for the
industry
so without the rules we can’t play the
game and we can’t play it safely it’s
like if everyone wanted to be able to
drive but there were no rules for the
road we’d all just get mash up right so
Renewable regulation also establishes
how much energy we can produce and make
sure that the industry grows safely if
we work together we can get these
regulations pushed through so that we
can start to use renewable energy to
save money on our electricity bills let
me see a show of hands who likes to save
money right right everybody let the
record show so later I’m gonna ask
everybody to do a little something about
that other policies that are affecting
renewable energy we have an upside down
energy structure energy rate structure
the price of our electricity goes down
the more of it that we use this is
called a tiered energy rate usually this
structure is the opposite way around
this rate structure makes energy
conservation less important because
they’re saving less money at the higher
end of energy costs it also makes
renewable energy investments less
attractive
it makes the payback period on those
invest investments much longer so I’d
like to change this most of us are in
the first tier but as you move to tier 2
3 & 4 the cost of your energy decreases
by about half why should a low energy
user pay more for electricity than a
high energy user this may have made
sense in the past when energy usage was
being encouraged and economic growth was
being encouraged but now when the BVI
electricity corporation can’t really
keep up with the growing electricity
demand it seems like we’re sending the
wrong message duty rates the duty rate
for renewable energy is too high
renewable energy duty rate
renewable energy goods are currently
taxed at 20%
compare that to a five percent duty
rates for fossil fuel technologies
we’re not even competing on the same
field this becomes a major factor in
renewable energy system cost imagine we
have to add 35% to every system after
shipping in duty this duty assignment
seems to suggest that the BVI is anti
renewable energy but that’s not right as
a member of the organization of Eastern
Caribbean states a willing member of the
carbon war room and a nation committed
to developing renewable energy
shouldn’t we be sending the opposite
message so why do we need to make the
switch from fossil fuel to renewable
energy we’re spending far too much money
on diesel the BVI spends approximately
45 50 million dollars a year in diesel
hands up who thinks that’s a lot of
money yeah yeah me too okay so the cost
of our electricity will only continue to
rise over time as the cost of fuel Rises
the cost of fuel has been artificially
low lately as OPEC has been squeezing
out other energy producers with
renewable energy the cost of electricity
will eventually fall in essence this is
because we’re moving from an expensive
polluting and finite fuel source to a
free clean and infinite fuel source
which you may notice we have in
abundance renewable energy also creates
energy independence our fuel comes from
across the sea on tankers if for some
reason these tankers stop coming then we
may be looking at complete economic
shutdown within a few weeks we do not
have a sufficient fuel reserve reserve
to keep us moving there
many events outside of our control like
war natural disaster and and rising fuel
price any of these could stem the flow
of energy sources to our shores and
bring us back to the days of donkey
carts which I thought was a bad idea
until Thor told me he wants to bring
back the horse and cart so so renewable
energy is always there it’s always all
around us all we have to do is reach out
and take it and nothing can change that
renewable energy creates more skilled
jobs renewable energy sector jobs in the
US have been growing at 12 times the
rate of their economy renewable jobs in
the u.s. now exceed the number of fossil
fuel production jobs this same thing
will happen in the BVI the number of
jobs will increase the quality of those
jobs will be better the jobs will be
cleaner more skilled and higher paying
and it will also expand the skill sets
of those currently employed in the
energy sector renewable energy helps us
take advantage of modern technology we
can produce all the drinking water that
we need using renewable energy the water
filtration technologies these days are
efficient enough where with relatively
small investments we can secure our
water supply while decreasing the cost
of that water Camino Island is a great
example of this and something you had
perhaps not thought about transportable
fuel it’s all good to have stationary
fuel like renewable energy but you also
need to have a transportable fuel that
you can use in your vehicles we can
replace the diesel and gasoline that we
currently use in our engines using
renewable energy we can achieve this by
splitting the water
molecule h2o into hydrogen and oxygen
the oxygen can be bottled stored and
sold we can use the hydrogen in hydrogen
fuel cells to give us transportable fuel
that we need Toyota and Honda and other
car companies are already making
hydrogen fuel cell vehicles let’s
anticipate this change to further secure
our future so what is the future of
renewable energy in the BVI well when we
leave this room we’re going to move to
100% of renewable energy power ASAP we
need to get there as soon as possible
as a community so that we get the energy
savings and and the energy security that
we need before they become major
problems in doing so we’re going to stop
spending millions of dollars and
lighting millions of dollars on fire
literally in various diesel engine
injectors then we are going to use all
of that money for important things like
education cultural development
structural development and also to
secure the water and fuel source that we
desperately need so what do I mean by a
united energy future well it’s a common
misconception that the renewable energy
industry and the fossil fuel industry
are the antithesis of one another this
is not really the case the truth is that
we’re part of the same continuum and
that we’re all working to achieve a
common goal that is to produce enough
electrical engine energy to meet the
growing demands of our market and do so
while keeping the price of that energy
down for the people we’re selling to we
want the solution to transitioning to a
hundred percent renewable to be based on
what creates the greatest good for the
greatest number of people
for the sake of speed this is what I
would suggest the BVI electricity
corporation stays in control of the
majority of the supply of renewable
energy this will create the smoothest
and least disruptive transition to
fossil fuel possible because it can be
properly managed and controlled
we need to carefully regulate renewable
energy production homes and businesses
need to have the ability to produce
their own power from renewable energy
but we exist in a very small market and
so it has to be carefully managed if you
open the doors too wide too soon to
privatize renewable energy we will
almost immediately see problems arising
in the relationship between the BVI
electricity corporation and renewable
energy power producers if you have
energy producers battling for market
share it will ultimately slow down the
transition and this is not what we want
we want to get to a hundred percent as
soon as possible however the BVI
electricity corporation needs to be
mandated to meet these renewable energy
goals and the goals must be binding it
cannot be a choice because the easy
choice is to just keep doing what we’re
doing which is to keep producing energy
from fossil fuel it’s also the more
lucrative choice for some but it doesn’t
benefit all the Ministry of
Communication and works have suggested
that we strive for 30% of the BVI’s
electrical energy to come from renewable
energy by 2023 this is still an
achievable goal but not if we don’t have
an energy policy which promotes the use
of renewable energy together we can make
this happen we are too small of a
community to be at odds on this
initiative our thinking and planning
should be governed by principles that
create the greatest benefit for all of
society
all energy sources should be considered
one industry all energy sources should
push towards a shared objective and that
being abundant low-cost energy most
importantly we need to push this through
the House of Assembly this is the final
piece to the puzzle to allow us to
legally produce renewable energy so to
do this I would like to ask everyone in
the room to do just one thing for me
when you leave here write a letter or
generally harass your House of Assembly
representative I think I see one in the
room actually and ask the representative
in your district to get this regulation
back on the agenda get it finalized get
it agreed upon and get it passed so that
we can improve our world perhaps a
little pressure will go a long way
imagine so there’s a website up here to
find out who your district
representative is you can also find this
on the TEDx websites and you could just
google it the u.s. just pulled out of
the Paris climate Accord hmm boo but
it’s not it’s too late to stop the
snowballing renewable energy industry
let’s take this last step to get on the
gravy train let’s make a better world
for our children thank you
[Applause]
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