Feature photo via Canva Pro.

By Edgar Lewis

Following the ferocious Hurricane Beryl last July, scores of Jamaicans expressed outrage at the massive increase in their electricity bills, complaining that the country's lone electricity supplier, the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS), had charged them too much. The minister in charge of energy, Daryl Vaz, had to take the matter to the independent watchdog Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), which recommended that customers who received estimated bills in July should pay 40 percent less on their August bills.

Sasha Williams, who operates a bar in the parish of Portland on the eastern end of the island, is among those affected by the high cost of electricity. “For years now, I have been paying too much for electricity, and something needs to be done about it urgently,” she said in an interview. “To make matters worse, I am a commercial customer as well, and we pay higher rates. The expensive light bills affect my business.”

This is not the first time there has been such an outcry in Jamaica about the high cost of electricity. In fact, such occurrences are quite common, as Jamaica imports all the oil it uses for electricity and transportation. For years, the government has been looking for alternatives to help curb high energy costs. Much of the focus has been on clean energy like solar, but there has been a wave of change, as many people have been exploring using energy from the Caribbean Sea, which surrounds the island.

Two such renewables are offshore wind farms and ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC). Apart from lowering electricity costs, these ocean-based renewables seem to offer a stable homegrown solution for consumers while contributing to environmental sustainability.

Offshore wind farms use turbines installed in an ocean or large lake with strong wind to generate electricity. The generated electricity is transmitted through underwater cables to onshore locations. OTEC, meanwhile, generates electricity by utilising the temperature difference between the warm surface waters and the cold deep waters of the ocean. It is ideal for tropical regions, like the Caribbean, where the surface water can be significantly warmer than the deeper ocean layers, creating a thermal gradient.

Director of Engineering Services at the JPS, Ricardo Case, said ventures like these are very expensive, and the government would need significant financial support from international agencies for such mammoth undertakings. As such, he posited, they may not be the most feasible at this time, unless huge funding is available. He also argued that because of the high setup cost, offshore wind and wave energy would not reduce the cost of electricity in Jamaica in the short term. After about 15 years, he continued, consumers may see some cost reduction, but not until the investment is amortised.

According to Case, the Jamaican government can seek public-private partnership investments or attempt to access green fund, climate-resilient money to help with the project financing. Similarly, IPO and floating bonds over 10 years should be able to help with the start-up cost. “The treatment of the high recurring maintenance cost would also need innovative financing,” he explained, “and the project would not be able to generate sufficient revenue to keep up in a sustainable way.”

Duane Rowe, a certified energy risk professional and energy economist with experience in various international energy projects, echoed the sentiment that high investment costs and the need for substantial funding could make these technologies prohibitively expensive in the short term. However, he believes that if these projects receive adequate financing through avenues like international grants, they could be worthwhile in the future.

Pointing out that all technologies go through learning and experience curves — as seen with other renewable energy sources, like solar power — Rowe suggested that these new offerings could eventually achieve grid parity. Learning and experience curves are based on the premise that the more you do something, the better you become at doing it. Therefore, as more of a particular technology is developed, its future investment and operating costs will decrease. Grid parity occurs when a renewable energy source can generate power at a cost equal to or lower than that of other sources on the grid.

Highlighting that “the Germans used to do significant large-scale wind and solar projects when they were expensive, which helped propel the technology cost reduction over time,” Rowe predicted that “ocean-based energy technologies could follow a similar trajectory.” In other words, they could be valuable in the long term with sufficient funding. In Europe, renewables project development had traditionally been facilitated by feed-in tariffs, a policy mechanism that incentivises their production.

For his part, Rowe thinks the end game is solar, which he says currently produces much more energy globally, but he does not rule out that one day, energy from ocean sources could play an increasing role in Jamaica's grid. He also noted that these renewables should be seen in a complementary light and not as competitors.

From the consumer perspective, Williams supports the view that the time has come for Jamaica to seriously explore investing in renewables: “We need something different; the government needs to find solutions like getting electricity from the ocean. We don’t produce oil, and that’s the main reason electricity is so expensive. If more people were using other forms of energy, it would lessen the cost, and the bills would not be so high.”

Another crucial factor that Jamaica would have to consider, he said, is the protection of such investments from hurricane and storm surge damage. The engineering design for hurricanes and extreme weather would have to factor in all conditions and harden to protect against them. “Some things can be covered by design; others will need operational actions to secure the plant. Usually, the plants are taken offline and assets secured for high surges and winds; that may pertain here, as well,” Case explained.

Regarding the environmental impact, Rowe underscored that very careful environmental assessments should be carried out before such projects begin. “There [are] not much harmful parts in the technology, as I understand it,” he said. “It's a mechanical technology. It's not like you are having any thermal stuff under the ocean, or oil fuel potential for pollution. It's really a mechanical mechanism [so] I think it is possibly very harmonious with the environment, and the environmental impact won't be significant. Again, that is something you would have to assess on a large scale.”

Apart from the ramifications of high fuel costs, Jamaica has been exploring ways to limit its use of fossil fuels, which increase greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to global warming. The Caribbean, highly vulnerable to climate change, urgently needs to transition to sustainable energy, as frequent hurricanes, rising sea levels, and extreme weather threaten livelihoods and infrastructure.

By shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources like solar, wind, and ocean-based technologies, Caribbean countries could reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, enhance energy security, and build resilience against climate-related disasters. This transition could not only mitigate environmental damage but also offer economic benefits through job creation and energy cost savings and foster a more sustainable and secure future for the region.