3/4/2009 11:50:00 AM Energy plan for Bermuda is a good start
But more needs to be done to curb the use of greenhouse gas-causing fossil fuels
Stuart Hayward
The government's just-released Energy Green Paper seems at first glance to be well researched and comprehensive.
It explores energy use trends, alternative energy sources (including ways we can generate our own electricity), social factors and regulatory options.
While the tone throughout most of the paper is investigative, informative and tentative, there is one departure. The paper declares - it shall be mandatory to fit smart meters with net metering capabilities to all new buildings and to plan a retrofit programme for existing buildings.
Smart meters would allow electricity to flow both ways. If a customer installs solar panels, for example, and was generating more electricity than was needed, then the excess would be fed into the grid and the meter would, in effect, run backwards, shaving costs off the customer's electricity bill.
Smart meters also would provide a customer with important information about his or her consumption habits that would foster efficient energy-use decisions.
We in Bermuda ought to be ahead of the game because of our historic relationship with water. Each household catches and stores its own supply. Some of us have prided ourselves on our efficient and even frugal use of water.
It is worth noting, however, that our frugality did not arise out of voluntary or altruistic decision making. We were virtually forced to curb water use because the alternative meant that our wells and tanks went dry.
Our per capita use of water has grown, mainly because we have found other ways and the funds to acquire more water than our roofs could catch. We dug wells to deliver water for flushing and other non-potable uses; we hooked up to the waterworks who mined groundwater and delivered it via pipeline; we paid truckers to deliver water; we engaged in desalination (mostly via reverse osmosis) of brackish or sea water.
Our increased water use, just like our increased consumption of other goods and services, requires increased importation and consumption of energy.
We are building bigger homes and offices, driving bigger cars and trucks, riding bigger motorbikes, using more electrical appliances and electronic devices.
More people, all using more electricity just isn't a sustainable concept.
What is now clear is that fossil fuel-based energy is a double-barreled problem. Oil supply - a finite resource - is being outstripped by oil demand, which is increasing as the population grows. The problem is compounded by each person's growing energy appetite.
In addition to the scarcity issue (as demand begins to overtake supply), the burning of oil, whether to make electricity or propel vehicles and vessels, produces carbon dioxide, the most potent of the man-made so-called "greenhouse gases." These gases tend to trap heat that might otherwise radiate away from the planet. The result is unforeseen changes in the earth's climate and a predictable rise in ocean level.
That spells trouble for this island, and should be a compelling incentive for us to change our energy consumption habits.
With this in mind, our energy policy should be based on sound reasoning and basic technologies that:
n Move us away from fossil-fuel electricity generation;
n Help us reduce our trend toward higher per capita energy consumption;
n Encourage and enable personal responsibility for producing and monitoring the energy we consume.
The Energy Green Paper is a first step, a good one in my view. Now the work begins of converting ideas to policy, some of which will run counter to our current view that all growth is good.
