Speakers at the Caribbean Clean Energy Technology Symposium. Photo: CHRYSTALL KANYUCK

With relatively small economies and ample sun, wind and sea, the Caribbean should be a hotbed of activity when it comes to renewable energy, but the main hurdle throughout the region is “bureaucratic inertia,” according to Clyde Griffith, the executive director of the Barbados Renewable Energy Association.

Speakers at the Caribbean Clean Energy Technology Symposium. Photo: CHRYSTALL KANYUCK
He should know. In 1981, Mr. Griffith became that country’s first minister of energy.

“At that time, my mandate was to look at renewable energy as an alternative,” he said on March 25 at the Caribbean Clean Energy Technology Symposium in St. Thomas.

At the time, he added, oil had been rising in price rapidly in the wake of the Iranian revolution in 1979.

The first major renewable energy effort in Barbados came after a grant from the Inter-American Development Bank to study the feasibility of generating wind power on the island, Mr. Griffith said.

“The study was successful, and we instituted a windmill in Barbados, which is still there,” he said.

The problem? That windmill was “never successfully used,” he said.

Although he didn’t get into the details of why not, he added, “We never got off the ground with that. We dropped the ball for 25 years.”

See the April 9, 2015 edition for full coverage.

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