Aware that a natural disaster or rising sea levels could wipe out critical infrastructure located on the coast, the Barbadian government is working to upgrade the water and energy systems to make them more efficient and less vulnerable. Wilfred A. Abrahams, Minister of Energy and Water Resources, discusses promising plans for distributed energy generation and water-saving schemes, as well as investment opportunities for local and foreign players alike

Can you give us an overview of the water system in Barbados?

Our water system was set up under the British empire, so many of our water pipes are more than 100 years old. What this translates into is that we have a lot of non-revenue water: aged pipes burst and there is water loss that we cannot account for. This is not an ideal situation, but the Barbados Water Authority has a plan to deal with it. In an ideal world, we would redo the entire network, but Barbados has 2,500 kilometers of water mains and an estimated cost of 1 million Barbados dollars per kilometer, so that’s 2.5 million dollars, which is a massive undertaking. But because we are a water-scarce country and are currently experiencing the worst drought of the last 60 years, we need to reach a point where we can account for nearly every drop. We can’t afford any waste: we don’t have rivers and all our water comes from the rain that ends up in underground aquifers. We have always had naturally purified water, but that is now under threat because the rain is not falling as it used to. We are feeling the effects of climate change and global warming.

And what is the current situation with energy on the island?

Barbados is powered principally through fossil fuels, but the government has taken a position to move away from that, and we have a clear policy that by 2030 we must be fossil fuel-free at best, and at worst nothing less than carbon neutral. There are two reasons for this: one is altruistic – we understand the need to do our part to combat climate change and reduce our consumption of fossil fuels. But there is another reason: we probably spend more of our foreign exchange on purchasing oil and gas than we do on almost anything else. This represents a major drain on our foreign reserves, and this country simply cannot afford to be subject to vagaries of fluctuating oil prices. Whenever there is a global disruption, we end up paying more for oil than we can afford. As it stands now, our electricity is one of the most expensive in the world. We need to become masters of our destiny, and one of the ways to do that is by securing our energy future in ways that we can control.

How do you plan to do that?

Our energy is controlled by a vertically integrated monopoly utility that controls generation, transmission, distribution, and every aspect of energy in Barbados. The idea is to move away from this monopolistic approach, especially in a generation. We are aiming for distributed generation, which provides investment opportunities for locals and others, as we plan to grant licenses for at least 20 years, making it a relatively safe investment with guaranteed returns. It also provides a space for the average Barbadian to enter into energy investment, either through cooperatives or other avenues. We are looking to enfranchise Barbadians and enfranchise investors, but if most of the investment comes from within, then we don’t have the issue of repatriation of proceeds. We’re looking to have distributed generation within an overall plan for the island. But we do not aspire to full individual autonomy, which can be dangerous in the context of electricity as the island needs to be considered as one unit.

Why do you feel that distributed generation is the answer?

If you look at what happened recently in the Caribbean, in Dominica and the Bahamas, where one weather event wiped out generations of progress, we can’t afford for that to happen in Barbados. If you have a monopoly generation and all the generation assets are concentrated in certain areas, and there is a hurricane that wipes them out, it would take the country decades to recover. We talk about resilience all the time, and if we distribute our generation capacity across the island, then it is unlikely that everything is going to be wiped out at the same time. We have been lucky so far not to have been hit by a major hurricane, but the odds are not in our favor, so the question is, how do we position ourselves to bounce back a lot faster after it happens? One way is by having distributed generation and microgrids and pockets of generation across the country. Even if the grid goes down, these pockets can provide relief to nearby communities. 

How will you engage the private sector to adopt this change?

Encouraging companies is not difficult. If you drive across Barbados you will see solar panels everywhere. People are starting to incorporate green energy into new construction, and most major enterprises have solar panels. This is good for self-generation, but we need to do it on a more focused scale that doesn’t just provide for the individual unit but the grid overall. We haven’t had trouble getting the private sector to buy into renewable energy, as they are doing it from a financial point of view. Our arrangement with the utility, for the most part, is a buy all-sell all [ which lets small-scale energy producers connect back into the grid]. If you have a large solar installation on your property, you sell all the electricity you generate to the grid and buy back what you need, which gives you some return.

Are you considering other renewables besides solar?

Solar is intermittent and land-intensive, so you still need to include wind. Wind turbines are much more efficient these days, but we are a small island and tourism is a big industry, and tourists do not necessarily want to see the evidence of industrialization around them. However, tourism is concentrated along the western and southern corridors, and there is a project in the north of the country. We are also exploring offshore wind, but this is still in an experimental stage, as is tidal and wave energy. But all our options are open. We’d be happy to have someone come and say they want to try out an experimental facility to prove their concept and see if it works for us. But as a country we are not going to invest heavily on experimental technology, we don’t want to be the guinea pigs, there is too much riding on this.

What about storage for the energy?

We are looking at battery storage; hydro pump storage is not an immediate option for us because we don’t have rivers or waterfalls. Right now our storage consists of 100% battery storage. The cost of batteries was once prohibitive but it is coming down. As technology improves, it becomes a more viable option because of space issues. If you have a plant, you don’t want half your space taken up by solar panels and the other half by batteries, so the smaller and more efficient the batteries, the more sense it makes for us. We have a seriously ambitious goal as a country, but we have it in a sector that is still developing and trying to prove itself, so we are aiming for long-term solutions where many options are largely experimental, and it is a delicate balance.

Germany is developing new technologies in this field. What is your message for readers from this country?

The whole world has caught on to the catchphrases of renewable energy and climate change. But I don’t think many developing countries understand the true impact of it. Germany has a massive landmass, so if one area is affected by climate change, people can move somewhere else. With 166 square miles, if we are affected by climate change, there is nowhere for us to go. We don’t have a chain of islands where we can relocate people. We in the Caribbean contribute the least to the carbon footprint of the world, yet we are among the most impacted, so for us, it is not just a nice catchphrase or something we do to earn carbon credits: for us is it a matter of life and death. If global temperature increases by two degrees, Barbados is going to lose a lot of its coastline, and our infrastructure is located on the coast, as are our hospital, energy generating facility and tourism products. I ask for people not to see us as numbers but as individuals with a culture that is different but valid. We have a high standard of living and highly educated people. We have produced scholars and global talent. We are not just that country you see on TV when something happens. We are real people with a real society and the Caribbean bloc is a serious contributor to the world economy, so we are not dispensable.

How do you educate people to consume less as part of this drive towards energy efficiency?

Solar technology was pioneered in Barbados in the 1970s. We pioneered solar water heaters, which most houses have. Barbadians link the sun to electricity savings, so selling them solar energy has been easy. But I tell people that if we all move to renewable energy, we will end up using more electricity, so it is not enough to simply replace fossil fuels. We also need to be more aware of what we use. People don’t see the link between water and energy, but one of the biggest consumers of electricity is the utility that supplies potable water. The Barbados Water Authority is the single largest consumer in the country. Barbadians don’t have water-saving devices at home, as traditionally it was not a problem. I’m trying to drive home this point, to get people to conserve water. Soon, any imported toilets and faucets must be water-saving ones. There is a horrendous cost in water alone when you think of the daily flushing with non-water saving toilets. The government is also considering introducing building regulations to mandate potable water storage facilities in buildings of a certain size. We want to incentivize homeowners to store potable water so that if something goes wrong and systems go down, there will be a buffer to fall back on. But often people don’t see the advantage of buying water-saving devices because it is cheaper to keep paying the water bill, because our water is heavily subsidized. So the whole landscape of what we want to do has to change: we have to change habits, culture, ways of thinking. It is a lot that Barbadians are being asked to do, but we don’t have the luxury of time.

How are you encouraging new generations to develop new solutions?

We are trying to incentivize university and technology institutions to add renewable energy to their curriculum and to encourage innovation. As we pioneered solar heaters, there is no reason we could not also pioneer renewable energy systems. We have the capacity to create, but we tend to do it as a hobby. We now want to encourage people to be entrepreneurial and to be part of the solution.

What would you say to attract German investors?

We have an ambitious target that is within a 10-year horizon, and we know a lot of what needs to be done to get there. We are in the middle of an IMF restructuring program so the investment is welcome. Early movers will have an advantage: the returns in renewable energy are high, and our feed-in tariffs are generous. As more players move in and the sector develops, the gap between the price that the rest of the world pays for electricity and what Barbados pays will narrow, so the longer investors wait, the smaller the profit margin. The time to invest is therefore now.

What kind of partnerships are you looking for?

The water authority is looking for partners to help develop the water sector and renewable energy and other Statutory Corporations under my Ministry are investing in the energy space. If you have some innovative ideas to pitch to us, we are prepared to entertain it if it is viable. Scientists and business people can come to develop their prototype here and prove their concept in tropical conditions. We are seeing a lot of interest in the renewable energy sector, in things like battery storage, wind power, and wave and ocean energy. Caribbean people do not believe in reinventing the wheel, so if you do a pilot project and it works in Barbados, chances are that it is going to be picked up by the rest of the region. We have a stable country where it is safe to invest, and foreign companies enjoy the same very low tax rates as domestic companies, so there is every reason to come talk to us.