A story on today’s regional pages caught the attention. Bermuda is about to inaugurate a solar plant at the airport. Located on a no-longer-used runway, it consists of 24,000 panels covering 15 acres to generate six megawatts of green energy.
The point is that if a territory which sees perhaps the most Atlantic tropical systems on average can achieve this, so could St. Maarten. Being in the hurricane belt has sometimes been mentioned as too big a risk in terms of potential damage to the installations and related equipment.
One does not even have to look that far, of course. Both St. Eustatius and Saba have well-functioning solar farms, although the first one on the latter island had to be rebuilt and made more storm-resistant. Since then, they have survived several cyclones, be it not of a catastrophic nature like Irma in September 2017.
The Bermudian project was delayed due to infrastructural problems and because it regards an innovation and utility-class plant, requiring a new relationship with electricity provider of 100 years Belco. Similar challenges occur almost anywhere such ventures are embarked upon, but they usually prove worth the trouble.
In this case the additional power will serve to increase supply during peak load periods like the height of summer when air-conditioning is heavily relied on. It should prevent having to turn on additional machines at considerable expense, thus ultimately reducing the cost to customers.
GEBE is long overdue in joining the global trend of non-fossil-fuel energy production also for environmental reasons. Sure, the government-owned company announced plans in that direction, but little in terms of concrete intentions.
By now, all the public wants to hear is a clear answer on the co-called “four W” questions that form the basis for news reporting: who, what, where and when.
