Wednesday, September 22, 2021
By NEIL HARTNELL
Tribune Business Editor
nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
Environmentalists were bluntly told by Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) that utility-scale solar solutions for New Providence are “impractical” because up to 1,800 acres would be required to generate sufficient energy.
Burlington Strachan, BPL’s director of grid solutions and support services, told Eric Carey, the Bahamas National Trust’s (BNT) executive director, that solar was not a substitute or alternative for the 85 Mega Watt (MW) Station D power plant that both were discussing on a conference call.
“Essentially, as a base-load plant, energy needs to be produced 24/7 and at adequate levels,” Mr Strachan said of the demands on solar. “In order to achieve the same level of energy output, BPL would need to build a plant that is about 360 MW of traffic in order to produce the same amount of energy.
“For a solar operation of this scale, 1,400 to 1,800 acres of land would be required for the solar field and a significant amount of battery storage to hold three-quarters of the 360 MW for when direct sunlight is not available. These factors make solar energy impractical for a new plant on New Providence.”
Mr Strachan reiterated the same rationale in a subsequent conference call, adding: “The new engines [at Station D] are part of BPL’s overall efficiency improvement strategy, so these engines are significantly more efficient and - are more environmentally friendly - than the older generation which fits into BPL’s improved energy mix approach.
“With respect to renewables, BPL’s primary focus right now is on the Family Islands where BPL is able to create higher penetration projects on those islands to keep them in the green and pristine condition that they’re in, and develop that as an attractive element to the tourism product.
“Station D on New Providence is specifically a baseload plant, and so when BPL considered looking at renewables, the challenge is the amount of renewables that BPL would need to put in place. A plant capable of producing the same amount of energy as Station D would require between 1,400 and 1,800 acres of land for construction. For that reason, BPL tabled solar and pursued the other elements of its improvement strategy.”
As for the renewable energy progress made to-date, Mr Strachan added: “BPL has been involved with the Ministry of the Environment in the past, and with some of their current projects, promoting the use of solar water heaters. BPL has frequently suggested individuals and agencies consider it as it is a good opportunity given our environment.
“As I stated earlier, the idea of a blended conventional and renewable power station, considering the energy density from renewables for this level of capacity and use profile on New Providence, is not really practical. Even if the solar installation only provides 10 MW, a significant acreage of land would be required. BPL is looking to encourage use of solar from the customer side, through its SSRG programme.
“The Small-Scale Renewable Generation (SSRG) programme allows individuals and business owners to generate energy using solar and tie that generation into the grid, so that they can self-consume and sell the remainder to BPL,” he continued.
“There are currently about 100 individuals and companies enrolled in the programme. BPL is also looking at renewable integration in the Family Islands, for example Ragged Island, where BPL is doing deep penetration for renewables.”
Comments
realitycheck242 says...
Just utilized the acres on Lake Killarney and build a floating solar power plant. There are many such plants in use around the world. The lake would provide inland protections from storms and Tesla now has the battery storage technology for 24/7 availability of power.
Posted 22 September 2021, 3 p.m. Suggest removal
ohdrap4 says...
Lets increase VAT and NIB to pay for it.
Posted 22 September 2021, 4:36 p.m. Suggest removal
Bobsyeruncle says...
I like your thinking, but perhaps with the exception of China, I'm not sure there are that many floating solar farms out there in the 400 MW range. Also, Tesla Powerwall batteries are really for residential use, and not large scale power storage.
Posted 22 September 2021, 5:33 p.m. Suggest removal
DWW says...
bet there are 1800 acres of roads & parking lots which could be covered. to put this article in different words rooftop solar will never happen because they dont want it. all they really need to invest in is the battery storage the PV supply could be worked out if there was will to
Posted 22 September 2021, 9:05 p.m. Suggest removal
The_Oracle says...
The solution is for the general Public to be able to handle their own energy needs, via financing that would be available IF the Bahamas actually had a workable and easy to navigate policy.
The uptake by the general public for their homes, and Commercial buildings etc would reduce the demand on BEC/BPL significantly, and reduce the strain on their antiquated Transmission and distribution system which they themselves always blame for outages.
But isn't it funny, they don't want to lose the ability to inconvenience customers and still bill them insane rates.
They don't want to disturb the entrenched fuel oil supply chains.
Posted 22 September 2021, 5:03 p.m. Suggest removal
DonAnthony says...
We need massive wind turbines just offshore. Just one turbine can power 3000 homes for a year with clean energy. Also underwater tidal turbines.
Posted 22 September 2021, 6 p.m. Suggest removal
Mr-G says...
Idea from others, my parents in UK had free solar panels installed on there roof, they got free power during the day and any excess not used went back to the power company, win win for both.. We have plenty of acres on our roof tops.. even if I buy my own solar panels I should be able to sell excess to BPL .. acre problem solved....
Posted 22 September 2021, 9:22 p.m. Suggest removal
The_Oracle says...
The roof top leasing or Lease to own cannot happen without financing, which cnnot happen without an enabling national policy. Currently getting shuffled between Ministry of work, URCA and BEC/BPL is an endless loop of stagnation.
Posted 23 September 2021, 5:43 p.m. Suggest removal
mirkovonkovats@gmail.com says...
Any solution bringing down energy costs should be followed swiftly.
Let the market speak. It can’t be that BPL holding the country hostage and wrecking the economy. As someone said “fix it - impossible, close it - impossible, so sell it” Rate reduction
bond idea can’t work just a sugar coated word for “hefty price increases” which once
implemented wil never been taken back.
Posted 24 September 2021, 9:58 a.m. Suggest removal
DiverBelow says...
There are many convenient excuses presented here, also consider:
1. not enough square footage for a Solar Farm; loads of square footage of rooftops.
2. Financing problems for rooftops PV's in leasing or ownership programs, is based on BPL's poor management & credit standing. With the current enthusiasm for Climate Action there are a myriad of NGO programs which can provide financial help to owners if managed by the utility & government (keyword Managed). They want owners to carry all the risk.
3. Battery storage is an issue for a Solar Farm, not so for individual rooftop units with their own wall storage units. Provided they can be financed in the complete package.
4. Excess power provided by rooftops during the day is consumed individually or contributed to the grid via controller/battery units. i.e.: less fuel consumed during day.
5. Current quality issues for the utility receiving power from rooftops, todays good inverters/controllers & battery wall units have minimized this issue. Quality affected by the state of grid & transformer condition.
6. Rooftop PV will require additional & improved BPL management, the largest reason for poor grid conditions & poor financials.
Posted 24 September 2021, 2:18 p.m. Suggest removal
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