4 Main Challenges Facing Jamaica

[walter]

My gut feeling is that there is and has been oppostion and stonewalling politics at work to maintain the current monoply and thus making it extremely difficult for an alternate energy source to get a foothold.

Exactly !
The government would have to do 3 things for solar generation to make any sense and ALL of them simultaneously:
1. Abolish duty on solar equipment,
2. Abolish GCT on solar equip[ment,
3. Introduce net metering, so Jamaicans can sell excess of generated electricity at the same price they buy it.
Do you really think they would do it ? Do you ?
Wind generation is just an illusion [see Ontario's experience]. Huge capital expense and low return, you have to install output about 7 times greater than the one you can count on. Providing that there is frequent wind waaaay up there.

[Hussyband]

Exactly !
The government would have to do 3 things for solar generation to make any sense and ALL of them simultaneously:
1. Abolish duty on solar equipment,
2. Abolish GCT on solar equip[ment,
3. Introduce net metering, so Jamaicans can sell excess of generated electricity at the same price they buy it.
Do you really think they would do it ? Do you ?
Wind generation is just an illusion [see Ontario's experience]. Huge capital expense and low return, you have to install output about 7 times greater than the one you can count on. Providing that there is frequent wind waaaay up there.

Abolishing the duty is a step in the right direction... Making the panels on island would be a better idea. The GCT could also be reduced / eliminated by producing the panels on island.

Net metering. I hate this phrase. At face value it makes sense, but it fails to consider one important aspect of the whole scenario. The grid. Who pays for the grid in this scenario? Ultimately, the people who cannot afford to buy or set up their own solar panels for the home or business. Someone, somewhere has to pay for all the miles of wiring, the distribution and regulation of any power coming into the grid.

I really believe the only way renewables will ever work is with utility company scaling, supplemented by individual home use. I don't think Jamaica is currently able to subsidize the installation of projects like we are seeing in the US. They can't afford not to either, so it's a quandary.