SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – FORMER President Bill Clinton urged Puerto Rico to develop a renewable energy strategy and help lead the Caribbean in becoming less dependent on petroleum during a forum Tuesday in the US territory.
Clinton said the island has the resources necessary to launch various clean energy projects that would also help drive down power bills, which are about twice that of the US mainland on average.“In the Caribbean you find, unbelievably, the highest electricity rates in the world on average,” said Clinton, who established the Clinton Foundation to target initiatives ranging from those that fight climate change and AIDS to those that support small businesses.He also warned the region would be one of the first hit by climate change effects.“The way we produce and consume energy cannot be maintained without severe, adverse consequences,” he said. “There is no question that the climate is changing at an unsustainable rate.”Puerto Rico depends on petroleum to generate nearly 70 per cent of its power, but the government in recent years has unveiled several renewable energy projects in a push to drive down costs and cut greenhouse emissions.Last year, officials unveiled the Caribbean’s largest solar farm in the southern coastal town of Guayama. The US$96 million project features more than 100,000 photovoltaic panels that can power some 6,500 houses a year. The project began operating in October and was built by AES Solar, a company based in Arlington, Virginia.The Caribbean’s largest wind farm also began operating last year in the southern coastal town of Santa Isabel. The US$200 million farm features 44 turbines that can produce up to 95 megawatts of renewable energy, enough to power some 30,000 homes a year. It was built by San Francisco-based Pattern Energy.In April, Gestamp Wind, a division of the Spanish Gestamp Renewables, unveiled a US$90 million wind farm in the southeast town of Naguabo that features 13 turbines that can power 9,000 homes a year.Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla said he aims to lessen Puerto Rico’s oil dependence to 40 per cent in five years by turning to natural gas.“We’re aware this plan requires a profound transformation in the way we produce, seek, distribute and consume energy,” he said.Clinton urged Garcia to also consider installing solar panels on buildings given the number of flat roofs that exist across the island. He said the territory could also help bolster its economy by manufacturing solar panels for customers in the Caribbean. He pledged involvement of the Clinton Foundation.Department of Natural Resources Secretary Carmen Guerrero said that a University of Puerto Rico study found the island has enough rooftops to meet all its energy demands through solar panels.“We have plenty of sun, wind, ocean,” she said. “Yet we are almost 100 per cent dependent on non-renewable energy sources.”The island’s current clean energy projects feed the state-owned Electric Energy Authority, which is mired in debt and has struggled with its own internal turmoil in recent years. Most of the projects were launched under the administration of former Gov Luis Fortuno, which sought to generate 12 per cent of Puerto Rico’s power from clean energy by 2015, 15 per cent by 2020 and 20 per cent by 2035.Fortuno also had sought to build a 92-mile (148-kilometre) pipeline that environmentalists long protested given that it would cross through fragile ecosystems and archaeological sites. Fortuno said the pipeline would have saved US$1 billion a year and reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 64 per cent, but his administration withdrew plans for the project last year after investing more than US$50 million in it.Garcia has said he seeks to produce 250 megawatts through clean energy by 2014, requiring US$500 million in investment that could generate some 500 jobs.He also said he expects to use natural gas to increase power production from 15 to 50 per cent by 2015, and to 70 per cent by 2017 without the use of a gas pipeline.Among the new projects launched is a US$30 million solar panel installation at the island’s main convention centre that would produce 5 megawatts an hour for a total of US$20.7 million in savings, Garcia said.Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi, however, noted that the large majority of Puerto Rico’s renewable energy projects have not been completed.“(This is) adversely affecting the island’s credibility as a destination for investment in these important projects,” he said.Former US President Bill Clinton (right) talks to economist Sergio Marxuach and Carmen Guerrero, secretary of Puerto Rico’s Natural Resources during a forum on renewable energy in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Tuesday. (PHOTO: AP)
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Clinton urges Puerto Rico to lessen oil dependence
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