-but says there will be a big increase
Five percent of Guyana’s energy needs is being met from renewable resources.
The revelation was made by Prime Minister Mark Phillips in response to a question from Stabroek News during his end-of-year press conference at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre yesterday.
Renewable energy resources refer to self-replenishing energy that doesn’t run out. They are also zero carbon and can be used for electricity generation, transportation etc. Some of these include solar energy, wind energy, hydro energy.
When asked by Stabroek News “Can you say what percentage of Guyana’s energy needs is being met from renewable resources?”. Phillips responded “It’s just about five percent of our energy needs at this point as I speak, but that is going to increase tremendously over the next year, 2025, 2026, and definitely 2025, 2030, because we have three utility-scale solar energy projects. We’ve already signed contracts for the construction of solar farms in Berbice and Essequibo and soon we will be signing another one for a 15- Megawatt solar farm in Region 10. You recall that we have Amaila Falls. We already had a request for a proposal for Amaila Falls. The evaluation of those submissions are being done, and we envisage Amalia Falls after the evaluation, the development of the project including the construction of the falls and everything that will occur during the next 5 year development period 2025 to 2030. So what you will see is an increase in the percentage of energy from renewable energy sources for the remainder of this term, as you know, we have elections by the end of this year, and then the next five-year development plan will include the ramping up or the increase in more renewable energy”.
He was then asked as a follow up: “Can you say why the government hasn’t done more in this area, considering climate change?”
He said: “The government always has an intention of doing more, but you know everything has to be financed. You need to have money or some source of money from the lending or borrowing to finance those projects. We’re in a stage now where we have an increase in revenue from the oil industry, and as we promise the people of Guyana we’ll utilize this increased revenue to improve the lives and livelihood of the people. Now improving the livelihood of the people will lead us obviously to make our people more resilient as we face this whole issue of climate change and it is throughout the world known that movement towards greater use of renewable energy is part of the whole plan to make us more resilient. So we have the resources now, and we’re going to utilize the resources to have greater usage of renewable energy”.
When asked by another reporter about studies done by the government with respect to rainfall and drought to ensure the the hydropower projects and the solar projects will continue to be sustainable when the Amaila Falls project comes on stream he stated that “Well, there’s a lot of studies that have been done in Guyana over the years and the GEA (Guyana Energy Agency) is a repository of those studies. We have other agencies in the Ministry of Agriculture, GGMC, those studies are widely available and it’s based on the information, we are making informed decisions as it pertains to where we will locate hydro projects or solar farms or whatever. So there is a lot of studies available out there and I can tell you that in regards to the Amaila Falls, all the studies out there point to the fall being a very feasible, good site in terms of the feasibility studies that were done for hydro projects, and that’s why we sticking with Amaila Falls.
Meanwhile, Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS 2030) highlights that “By 2024, revenues earned under the Guyana-Norway partnership and other funding will see investment at 8 different sites (solar PV Isolated grids). By then, Essequibo Coast, Linden, Bartica, Lethem, Mabaruma, Mahdia, Leguan and Wakenaam grids will have an average of 30 percent of their electricity consumed generated by solar PV. In the second and third phases of the programme for the Isolated Grids, there is a planned increase of the Renewable Energy share to an average of 50 percent by 2027 and 70 percent by 2030. Solar PV with battery storage will be the main renewable energy resource on the regional grids.