With Guyana seeking to diversify its faltering sugar industry and the PPP/C reopening closed estates, General Electric’s (GE) Regional Product Director John Ingram advised that ethanol can be used to aid the transition to renewable energy and he was bullish on the proposed use of natural gas here.
The world is moving away from fossil fuel as a form of power generation to more clean and renewable sources in an effort to cut carbon emissions and reduce global warming. This was reaffirmed at the United Nations COP26 held in Glasgow, Scotland back in November last year.
Ingram, who has been involved in energy transition projects across the world including the setting up of the world’s first ethanol-fired power plant in Brazil, said that Guyana’s fairly large sugar industry can be put to use in the development of such a plant as well. He was at the time delivering a presentation on the energy transition outlook for Guyana at the recently concluded international energy conference and expo at the Marriott Hotel in Kingston.
“There are other kinds of molecules as well like renewable methane or even ammonia and of course, biofuels. So, I ran a project in Brazil we did 12 years ago with Petrobras. We ran the first globally ethanol- fired power plant in the world. It was 100% bioethanol and it was run very successfully…and we proved that we can do this with biofuels.
“So again, of course, the sugar industry is an important industry in Guyana, and it’s a possibility also to use that fuel as a renewable fuel,” Ingram said.
Over the years, successive governments have been touting the transition of energy and the utilization of ethanol in furtherance of that goal. It is also part of the diversification of the Guyana Sugar Corporation which is the largest single employer in the country.
Providing some insight into the transition of Guyana’s energy sector, Ingram explained that heavy fuel oil (HFO) power plants, like those in Guyana, are the largest emitters of carbon in the atmosphere and by eliminating those plants, Guyana stands to reduce its emissions by 50%.
“…you’re looking at a 50% emission reduction as soon as you move away from HFO to natural gas. So that’s the biggest step in this chart. So if nothing else that’s already a 50% reduction and kudos to Guyana because it’s going to be the largest emission reduction in the world,” he stated.
Ingram, who has been working on renewable energy projects in Guyana for over five years, said that Guyana’s energy transition is heavily dependent on the usage of natural gas. He was quick to relate that this is in tandem with what is happening all over the world.
Globally, the power sector accounts for approximately 41% of carbon emissions and according to Ingram, it is the main sector that needs to be focused on in order in order to reduce emissions and have a sustainable future. Additionally, approximately 770 million people are without access to power and while the world calls for moving away from HFO there are countries that have to consider the affordability factor as well.
The energy transition specialist said that much of the world while moving away from HFO and coals as power generation means is turning to natural gas as a base for that transition since it is more affordable and provides stability.
“So that (dependability) is a key feature and the difficulty when you move into renewable sources like solar and wind is it’s not dependable. You can’t say when you want to have it and so you have to firm (up) that energy somehow and make sure that you have it available all the time.
“The other obvious aspect is sustainability. So sustainability is key and that basically means that we are reducing our emissions even though this is a counterintuitive position of going to gas (while) at the same time going to a more sustainable future,” he said.
Ingram said that if the transition to cleaner sources of power is not affordable then they are bound to fail. He added that the opportunity is ripe for Guyana to go towards both affordability and sustainability with natural gas and other renewable means.
“The US power sector reduced its emissions by 33%. Maybe a lot of you don’t know but the US was the largest Co2 reducer over the past 10 years. It was amongst the five top countries in reducing Co2 emissions and 40% of that was actually from gas, just moving towards gas and moving away from coal and moving towards gas which allows you to bring in more renewable power.
“And so more and more we see gas as an enabler to more renewable power… the abundant natural gas in the world today is a big changing feature. So LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) is available and of course, Guyana has its own gas now which will be key to implementing that (transition). But the need to be flexible is very important now,” Ingram rationalized.
He added that gas is the only source of renewable power when one considers the cache of alternatives to HFO. Ingram said that the usage of gas as a power generation means is expected to rise by 33% over the next 20 years even as 75% in solar and wind generation is anticipated for the same period.
