Gonzales wants shift to renewable energy in Tobago

Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Util­i­ties Mar­vin Gon­za­les says T&T ur­gent­ly needs en­er­gy re­form. He was speak­ing at the launch of a 15kW So­lar PV sys­tem in Char­lot­teville on Fri­day.

He said that if To­ba­go keeps grow­ing at its cur­rent pace, it may face an en­er­gy short­age in five years which is why the con­ver­sa­tion about re­new­able en­er­gy is time­ly.

“We de­mand elec­tric­i­ty, but did it ever oc­cur to us how much it is cost­ing you, the tax­pay­ers of this coun­try?” he asked, re­mind­ing the au­di­ence that de­spite pay­ing some of the low­est rates for elec­tric­i­ty, the Gov­ern­ment is cov­er­ing the short­fall, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the wa­ter and elec­tric­i­ty sec­tors.

He said the Gov­ern­ment was strug­gling with high en­er­gy sub­si­dies, re­veal­ing that it owes over $4 bil­lion to the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny for elec­tric­i­ty sub­si­dies.

Gon­za­les then called for a shift to re­new­able en­er­gy and said the so­lar PV project could help re­duce re­liance on gas.

“If we do not make these harsh de­ci­sions now, then these chil­dren, their fu­ture, will be in per­il,” he warned. “You have an op­por­tu­ni­ty to look at re­new­able in a very se­ri­ous way.”

Gon­za­les praised the train­ing of lo­cal tech­ni­cians in main­tain­ing the so­lar sys­tem on the is­land, say­ing it is a po­ten­tial new in­dus­try for To­ba­go. Gon­za­les fur­ther urged To­ba­go to see re­new­able en­er­gy as a ca­reer op­tion.

He al­so spoke about cli­mate change and its ef­fect on wa­ter sup­ply, and the need for in­vest­ment in in­fra­struc­ture.

“We need to in­vest mil­lions of dol­lars to en­sure that these 20 megawatts of elec­tric­i­ty that is need­ed for the long-term sur­vival of To­ba­go is put in place ur­gent­ly so that de­vel­op­ment can take place.”

Mean­while, Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine said the THA will con­tin­ue to in­vest and sup­port all projects aimed at sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment to im­prove the lives of all liv­ing on the is­land.

Au­gus­tine said, “As you ex­pand your homes to con­sid­er this as an en­er­gy so­lu­tion for you. And so I want to gra­cious­ly ac­cept this gift om be­half of the peo­ple of Char­lot­teville, dis­trict of Par­latu­vi­er Spey­side on be­half of the peo­ple of To­ba­go.”

The sys­tem was set up at the Char­lot­teville Pri­ma­ry School roof top to pro­vide con­sist and re­li­able elec­tric­i­ty.