Nobody likes to beat a proverbial dead horse, but Curaçao confirmed its fourth wind turbine park (see related story). There are also several on Aruba and Bonaire, in addition to solar panel farms.
Closer to home, both St. Eustatius and Saba have especially the latter. St. Maarten is still the only Dutch Caribbean territory without any of either and Wednesday’s fuel price hike was another reminder why it’s important to change this.
There are certainly proposals, including a roadmap involving GridMarket and local utilities provider GEBE’s own strategic plan. It’s understandable that the company has other priorities including the still-ongoing recovery from a debilitating ransomware attack almost two years ago.
When one sees vacancy ads for a CEO, CFO and COO in the same newspaper, it seems clear things have not gone well within management. Nevertheless, producing sustainable energy locally is a no-brainer and long overdue.
The incoming government also, as GEBE shareholder, needs to prompt some decisive action in this regard, for which Dutch and/or European Union (EU) funding is reportedly available. Curaçao introduced its electricity feed-in tariffs for private power generation already back in 2011 and recently announced it will maintain them. Saba Electric Company (SEC) in marking 10 years on its own last Friday noted that 36% of the island’s energy is green with as goal to reach 90%, while St. Eustatius even claims 45.5%.
Again, this may be stating the obvious, but it’s high time St. Maarten gets onboard the renewable energy boat. Enough talk.
