Launching SAASS Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Project

Monday, 9 March 2015: Students and staff at St. Andrew’s Anglican Secondary School are delighted to be the beneficiaries of an energy efficiency and renewable energy project under Grenlec’s Community Partnership Initiative.

A special 5^th anniversary award for the Grenlec Debates Champion, the project included replacement of lighting with LED fixtures, as well as a 13.92 kW rooftop solar installation. The combination will result in significant energy savings for the school.

The project, the first of its kind, was officially handed over to SAASS on Thursday, 5 March in a ceremony attended by Dr. the Right Honourable Keith Mitchell, other cabinet ministers, Grenlec and school officials and the entire SAASS student body.

Collin Cover, Chief Executive Officer of Grenlec, encouraged students to be sensitive to the issues affecting energy and to consider pursuing studies that will allow them to contribute to developing renewable energy and other solutions for the energy and environmental challenges confronting small-island developing states. He told students, “The environment is something precious, if we do things to destroy the environment we are destroying the future for all mankind on this plant. Our focus is on electricity generation, but we need to address other aspects of our energy sector, including transportation, which also impact our environment.”

Delivering remarks, Minister for Education, Anthony Boatswain, spoke to the value of the project as model for others, “From both the cost and environmental perspective renewable energy is certainly the way of the future, notwithstanding the recent decline in the cost of fossil fuel. “This is a project well worth replicating in all of our schools”.

Mr. Cover joined Dr. the Right Honourable Keith Mitchell, Prime Minister in cutting the ribbon to officially launch the SAASS energy efficiency and renewable energy initiative.

Applauding the project, Dr. Mitchell said that emphasis has to be placed on utilising the natural resources as sources of energy. Citing the need for Government and Grenlec to continue working towards cheaper energy prices, Dr. Mitchell told the audience, “We ought to use all the available natural resources in the process of optimising our energy sources for the development of our country”.

At a cost of over $200,000, the SAASS energy efficiency and renewable energy project is a precursor to similar projects being considered by Grenlec to expand renewable energy generation, while assisting Care Institutions and other educational institutions to reduce their energy costs.