by Kevon Browne
St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN) – Advocate, advise and act; that is what Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB), Timothy NJ Antoine said about the bank’s involvement in the push toward sustainable energy solutions.
“And in all three areas, we have advocated for renewable energy, as we have performed here, but we continue to be a place for renewable energy in our region here in St. Kitts and Nevis. We continue to advise our members, and things we seek would help to expedite the transition. And thirdly, we act as we’ve done here, and there are other things that we are doing that we are going to talk about.”
In a video on the ECCBConnects social media pages, the governor spoke about its award-winning solar canopy project, the largest solar power generator on St. Kitts, that has solar panels installed over the bank’s parking lot.
The Federation’s Energy Minister, Konris Maynard, and a delegation visited the ECCB Headquarters to tour the canopy installation and discuss the push toward St. Kitts and Nevis being a renewable energy leader in the Caribbean.
“One of the cornerstones of our mandate is to achieve possibly 100% renewable [energy] sources by 2030 – that is at least the goal. So it is our pleasure to be here. We want to look to see what you have done. We also want to commend you for your leadership on this front because that is what is needed. Here in St. Kitts and Nevis, as it is the care throughout the region, there is tremendous potential for us to get energy independence, but what is needed is leadership to take the step and move forward even as the challenges exist in terms of access to financing and of course the capacity of the local expertise to handle the transition. But these should not prevent us from putting out foot forward to achieve this very, very important goal of energy independence. With the emergence of the war [between] Ukraine and Russia, it has underscored the importance that if we have a resource that we can utilise to bring independence to our people as a Caribbean region, then we ought to go after it and go after it forcefully.”
Wayne Myers, the project manager, explained that the total power storage for the canopy system is 3,300 kilowatt hours using lithium-ion batteries.
“One of the things we learned about lithium-ion batteries is that they take a lot of charge early in the charge – once they get up to about 80%/89%, they slow right down – basically a trickle charge after that… That’s why we still export energy from the grid… We get close to 100% by about 5 p.m., batteries kick in at about 6 p.m., and they run at night till about just before 8 a.m.”
Other energy professionals in the delegation with Minister Maynard take the success of the ECCB’s greening project as an opportunity to learn more about the Bank’s best practices in their renewable energy efforts and apply those efforts and expertise to the Federation’s push for renewable, sustainable energy independence.
Watch the full tour here:
