Oil prices are at their highest since 2014 and some analysts believe that oil prices will continue to rise until at least late 2023.
This is very bad news for Vincentians, as so much of our electricity is still produced from oil. Many households could see their electricity bill become too high to pay. Some households could end up having their electricity supply cut off. Children of the poor should not grow up in darkness.
Both the ULP and NDP regimes have failed the people of SVG by not using renewable energy for 100% of our electricity needs. Given the natural resources our country has – sunshine, rivers, wind – we should have been using 100% renewable energy to provide 100% of our electricity needs form as long as (at least) 20 years ago.
The ULP regime wasted millions of dollars on geothermal drilling. That money should have been invested in solar, wind or hydro projects. The geothermal project was dead before it started and was a silly idea.
Producing electricity from oil is unnecessarily draining households of money that they cannot afford to lose. The money that household have to allocated for (unnecessarily) high electricity bills, should be used to buy food and send their children to school.
A Green Government would replace oil and make SVG 100% electricity produced from renewable energy – solar, wind and hydro – resulting in electricity bills being much, much lower. And every household would have access to mains electricity.
A Green Government would cut the price of electricity by 50%. The first 200 KWh of electricity used each month would be free.
Renewable energy is virtually a free source of energy and provides thousands of jobs. Swedish energy giant, Vattenfall, says 100 (wind) turbines should generate 300 megawatts (MW) of power – enough electricity for up to 240,000 homes. Approximately 3,500 jobs were created by the manufacture, construction and installation of this wind farm in Sweden.
With an SVG wind farm industry of only 25% the size of the Swedish one, renewable energy could provide thousands of jobs and electricity for all SVG homes and businesses. Household electricity bills could be reduced to virtually nothing. Our country is in a prime area for wind farm renewable energy production.
A windfarm in England took only two years to construct. Under a Green Government, it is possible that high household electricity bills could be phased out in SVG within 3 years. Cheap electricity would stimulate the creation of small businesses and make the SVG economy stronger.
The ULP regime is making our people suffer by continuing with oil as a main source of electricity production. Households have high electricity bills unnecessarily. A Green Government would focus on renewable energy, so households get cheap electricity and we have mass employment for the people of SVG.
A Green Government would abolish VINLEC’s monopoly on selling electricity in SVG, so that Vincentians can set up their own renewable energy electricity production businesses. Solar renewable energy can be obtained anywhere in SVG, biogas can be obtained from agricultural and household food waste and wind energy is available everywhere too.
With oil prices at an 8 year high and set to continue to rise, SVG must become self-sufficient in electricity produced from renewable energy in order to build a strong, sustainable economy.