St. Eustatius Utilities Company STUCO is executing the third phase of its solar park project (see Tuesday paper). On completion in about 12 months, 55-60% of the island’s electricity will come from the sun’s power during most of the day.
Saba is even further along in developing sustainable energy resources. In both cases, being part of the Caribbean Netherlands has facilitated beneficial support from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs EZK, just like for Bonaire.
But Aruba and Curaçao as autonomous countries in the kingdom have made similar strides mainly with windmills. On the other hand, St. Maarten has the same constitutional status yet remains without any such programme.
Plans exist, mind you, but this is about execution. The time has come for some tangible results.
Granted, local utilities provider GEBE was kept quite busy recovering from Hurricane Irma in September 2017 and last year’s administratively debilitating ransomware attack. In addition, political intervention with frequent changes in the government-owned company’s supervisory board and management during past years did not exactly help.
The recently-suggested possibility to establish a liquefied natural gas (LNG) refilling station for ships that could also be connected to the local grid sounds interesting in terms of cleaner and cheaper power. However, that does not reduce the island’s dependence on fuel imports from abroad.
With so many seemingly-successful examples elsewhere in the region also regarding storm-resistant facilities, the wheel does not have to be reinvented. Adequate public land is supposedly scarce, but certainly solar panels can also be placed safely over parking lots, on buildings, etc.
Truth be told, the people are tired of hearing about mere intentions. Next time anyone in government or at GEBE even mentions this matter they better be ready to answer the basic four journalistic questions: who, what, where and when.
