Bermuda proposes a solar PV farm

This is certainly good news. Belco, the electricity monopoly on the island, is looking at several options for adding renewable energy to it's grid supply. The 56 acre farm would supply 10MW's of power if constructed. I heard about this plan several months back and at the time noticed no projected start date or date of completion. That doesn't look to have changed. So at this point it's talk, positive talk no doubt but just talk. It is good to see they have taken bids though.

Last I heard the implementation of net metering island wide was still a talking point. This essentially denies householders and businesses from producing their own grid tied electricity to lower their extremely high electricity bills and maintains Belco's monopoly on supply.

This plant would replace 2.25% of the islands electricity needs provided by burning oil in the Belco plant saving 22,500 barrels of oil.

Interestingly, the breakdown of one of the Belco generators looks to lead to rolling blackouts. Perhaps this will convince the local populace of the folly of depending on one source of electricity.

This quote is somewhat laughable, "Bermuda is committed to being an early adapter of renewable energy and they are certainly leading the pack," said Mr. Henderson, who's parent company Sir Robert McAlpine is related to local constructon firm BCM McAlpine." If any thing Bermuda is king of the foot draggers when it comes to renewable energy. Photovoltaic technology is mature and widely deployed. The time for early adapters was 20 years ago.

Here's an excerpt from the article over at the Mid Ocean News;

"Bermuda may see soon the installation of a 56-acre solar farm in the East End in an effort to reduce the island's dependence on oil-generated energy.

Along with four other proposed projects, including a potential wind farm, a tidal energy initiative and two biomass projects, the solar farm would help to offset the pressure on Bermuda's power grid.

The proposed solar farm would see the installment of thousands of sun-catching panels covering 56 acres of the unused runway at L.F. Wade International Airport, also called, "The Finger".

If operating at full capacity, the solar panels would produce enough energy to power approximately 1,500 homes and offset Belco's need to burn close to 22,500 barrels of fuel.

According to the plan, approximately 35,000 to 50,000 crystalline photovoltaic panels would be constructed and would span the southern portion of the runway leaving the northern end open for various airport uses....

Last year, Belco asked several companies to submit proposals on renewable sources of energy in Bermuda. In April, a short list of vendors presented their proposals to Government and five projects were selected to move into an exploratory phase.

Belco gobbles up close to one million barrels of fuel providing power to an estimated 36,000 business and homes.

Last week the company announced proposed plans for rolling blackouts as a result of a broken generator reducing its power-generating capacity by 14.5 megawatts (MW).

If the proposed solar farm were to be installed, it would produce 10 MWs of energy, making up a large portion Belco's energy need.

RES Americas, the company that presented the solar panel project, stresses that they are just in the exploratory phase with Government at this time, answering questions and providing information. They have, however, expressed their excitement over the possibility of working on the project."

Bermuda Garden progress report

Today I leave for the US for a month. We've had fairly nice weather here in Bermuda but as usual for this time of year it has been very windy. We brought on our seedlings in some wine boxes that we could easily position around the yard to get sun but sheltered from the wind. Yesterday we transferred the last of the salad mixes, parsley, red royal lettuce, curly kale, lemon basil, jalapeno, bell peppers and some of the radishes into a raised bed I prepared earlier in the week.

Judy, the owner of the guest house, has been building a new raised bed out of the local limestone rocks. There is a dump nearby that only takes in horticultural waste and soil and composts it down. The resulting compost, mulch, and soil is free for the taking. We've now added about 4 car loads to the new bed and today will add the final load to top it off. I've also staked up the peppers to protect them from the wind. I used chopsticks we've saved from our sushi take out meals. While I'm gone Judy will plant and bring on more lettuce, onions, eggplant, spinach, swiss chard and regular basil. She'll also thin and plant the rest of the radishes, as well as build another raised bed and fill it.

In addition the leaf mould pile is growing while the compost pile is shrinking. It seems to break down faster than we can add to it.

This little experiment in urban agriculture is coming along nicely.

Public Transport in Bermuda

It is easy to find room for improvement in any city or country. Often we take the aspects of a culture that represent real efforts towards sustainability for granted.

For me Public Transportation, like universal health care, is a basic requirement of a civilized society. Bermuda has excellent health care, though private and expensive no-one is turned away and I've never heard of anyone being bankrupted or made homeless by an insurance company here.

The Public transport here is excellent. One can get a ferry or bus to within an easy walk of anywhere on the island. A bus pass costs $55/month, far less than owning, maintaining, licensing and insuring a private vehicle. Now I've recently heard that they've made it free for kids going to school. This decision should remove thousands of cars from the road during morning rush hours and when school lets out in the afternoon. I've seen kids as young as 5 years old traveling alone to school in safety. The entire community looks after the young children here.

Another step the government has taken is to ban the import of two stroke motorcycles which significantly improves the air quality. On the down side, stupidly large vehicles are now allowed to be imported for private use. Heavily taxed, though this makes no difference for those with more money than brains, there is even a hummer or two on this island of narrow twisty turny roads. Strangely, even with this wonderful public transport system, there are more cars per capita here than anyplace in the world.

Overall, the transport system here is more sustainable, reliable, and even enjoyable than any place I've ever lived.

Thanks to The Buses of Bermuda. Book. 2004, Colin Pomeroy for the image from http://www.bermuda-online.org/getround.htm

Island economies and sustainability

When I lived in Bermuda before, I was impressed with the nature of the community here. Even though the economy was, and unfortunately still is, dependent on international finance and tourism the local self reliance of the populace is expressed in many other ways and represents a well of resiliency that I hope they will be able to draw on as the economy tanks. As I perused the Energy Green Paper just published by the Government, with important steps suggested to increase resiliency, I happened across a post on one of the blog's I follow that is pertinent. Check out Worldchanging.com.

Here is an excerpt,

" Islands may at first sight seem an extreme example for all kinds of dynamics, and therefore not so relevant to the vast majority of people who live on the larger, continent-sized islands we call the "mainland." But as we have seen, this is such a wrong way to think as to be dangerous. Islands are the early warning systems of our planet. And they can be our "sustainability laboratories."

What's required of islands, in order to achieve long-term economic prosperity in ecologically healthy ways, is the same thing that is required of all of us: a willingness to understand limits, a willingness to live within them, a willingness to innovate and change so that the systems we create, as humans, fit comfortably together with the natural systems in which we are embedded.

That willingness is fundamentally an ethical choice. The word "ethics" does not mean that it is entirely optional: the survival of our species requires that certain behaviors be cultivated (cooperation, invention) while others are discouraged (murder, freeloading). Just as people in an island community live together in limited space, the "musts" of sustainability live tightly together with an emerging vision of ourselves as people who seek not just economic development or even sustainable development, but good development. Good people create good islands.

Good people are also at work all over the world, trying to make a better world. Islands can help show us the way. If islands cannot be made sustainable, nothing can. If islands can, then everything can.

And islands can." - Alan AtKisson

Island economies are microcosm's of the planetary economy and are therefore relevant to us all as we press against the outer limits of ecosystem services that we all rely on. Will the planet go the way of Easter island due to our negligence?

Thanks to jolle.se for the imaginary island picture.

Financing microgeneration in Bermuda and elsewhere

As the economy continues its tailspin towards terminal velocity, many will find the costs of installing renewable energy systems a deal breaker. Though the costs of systems are dropping, PV panel prices are set to decrease by as much as 40% by year end, and will continue to drop as economies of scale kick in, the cost of having a system installed can be multiple tens of thousands of dollars. Anyone out there tried to borrow that kind of money lately? There is a real danger that just as the technology becomes affordable, the grid gets upgraded, and the incentives are put in place, the people will be worried about affording food and will not be able to even consider renewable energy. Even without that scenario efforts need to be made to insure that RE is not just some niche nifty technology for the rich. It must be made available to all.

The cities of Berkeley and Portland have come up with creative solutions. Read more about their financing options at openalex.

The Berkeley solution requires active participation from government, but then changing the dominant paradigm should necessarily involve governments' active participation. Here's an excerpt from the post about it on openalex,

"On a typical $22,000 solar system, homeowners would pay about $180 a month on their property taxes. But the amount is reduced when factoring in PG&E rebates, which range from $2,000 to $15,000, plus a federal tax credit that allows homeowners to deduct 30 percent of the cost of the solar system from the overall amount of tax they owe."

I have heard some encouraging rumours about positive developments with government and Belco, the energy monopoly on the island. The Bermuda government energy green paper is just out, I'll peruse it and get back to you.

Sustainable development in Bermuda?

Bermuda has a sustainable development plan commissioned by the Government and published in June 2006. I've just begun to go through it and also to familiarize myself with the primary environmental organization on the island "Greenrock!". A title chosen I assume due to the tendency to refer to Bermuda as "the rock".

So far I am encouraged by my efforts to understand the state of the green movement here. The plan calls for the creation of a governmental body to oversee development and implementation of an energy strategy and just today Greenrock!, who, headed up by Andrew Vaucrosson, support the sustainable development plan, is in the papers calling for the creation of an independent energy authority. See the article in the Royal Gazette.

An independent body would be free of governmental and industry pressure and bias, hopefully, and could steer the energy strategy towards more sustainable and equitable solutions. Currently, energy is a monopoly on the island. BELCO, the company in charge, has recently produced a plan for implementation of renewables, I have yet to locate and review that plan.

"Mr. Vaucrosson said that as new renewable energy suppliers come on board, Belco could ultimately lose revenue. The independent authority however, would also be able to assist the power company in recouping some of its losses. By setting up a multi-source grid, Belco could end up buying back surplus electricity from domestic homes powered by renewables.

"An independent authority can look at how to create a multi-source system to help Belco offset its losses," said Mr. Vaucrosson."

Do the plans call for concentrated solar plants, vehicle to grid automobiles, as well as microgeneration? I'll keep you posted on what I learn.

I have long believed that Bermuda is well positioned to become energy independent. Ample wind and sun, as well as offshore currents represent a huge opportunity. It is exciting to see such efforts as those mentioned above taking root. How deep those roots go I am hoping to discover.

Thanks to the Encyclopaedia of Practical Knowledge for the image.