- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 17/Jul 08:58

Trinidad and Tobago must boldly plan for solar age

THE LARGEST solar project in Caricom, located right here in TT, will soon open. But as big as the Brechin Castle Solar Farm is, it represents a drop in the bucket of what is required. Once online in October, the Brechin Castle facility will generate enough power to supply 31,500 homes. Spread over 587 acres, the 92-megawatt farm will create enough energy to save in 123,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. That’s equal to taking 26,500 cars off the road. But for all that, it will contribute only eight per cent of total power-generation. The government’s current, and overly modest, target for renewables is 30 per cent by 2030. Brechin Castle, which is months behind its initial completion date – there have been problems with crime and construction challenges relating to communication barriers, difficult terrain, flooding and labour issues – will help take us forward. Yet, it will not take us far enough. Minister of Energy and Energy Industries Dr Roodal Moonilal, touring the project on July 9 with a battery of colleagues that included Public Utilities Minister Barry Padarath and Housing Minister David Lee, signalled, through words and the composition of the touring contingent, the government’s wish to send "a clear message to the broader community about the urgency of the energy transition." That was a good sign. But Dr Moonilal must go further, with the urgent promulgation of a ministerial renewable energy plan, which was reportedly in train for some time now under the previous administration. That plan must not be a tentative, virtue-signalling policy. It must serve as a bold blueprint. While TT is only now leaving the starting blocks, the rest of the world is racing to the finish line. At a global level, the "solar age" is upon us. Solar installations reached 600 GW in 2024, a 33 per cent surge, according to SolarPower Europe, and, in a year of record-breaking renewables growth, accounted for 81 per cent of all new capacity. China has led this charge, responsible for 64 per cent of global added capability, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency. Woefully, Central America and the Caribbean accounted for just 3.2 per cent. To examine the approach to solar in this country is to find laudable initiatives done in a scattershot way. Solar parks have been licensed. Street lighting changed. Panels have been installed at schools. Ports are being greened. India has offered to put solar panels on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, echoing its gift, decades ago, of the Speaker’s Chair in Parliament. But why should a sovereign state rely on another for such vital infrastructure? Required, too, is a mixture of renewables and not just a focus on solar. The weather is more extreme and unpredictable. All our eggs cannot be placed in the same basket. With oil, that is how we ended up here. Unless the government engages in a more ambitious and diversified renewables programme, the country risks being left behind. Future generations will pay. The post Trinidad and Tobago must boldly plan for solar age appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.