The country's current energy situation is fully dependent on petroleum products, which have unpredictable price volatility and which are burdening the environment with greenhouse gases and other air pollutants.
The Government of Sint Maarten has identified energy issues that are of great importance for the island and has subsequently developed a draft energy policy addressing the energy issues and the actions needed to move policy to implementation, with the ultimate goal of ensuring a sustainable, affordable and environmental friendly energy situation for the country.
Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Development, Environment, Infrastructure and Energy Affairs Hon. Theo Heyliger, says the draft energy policy for the country identifies several energy issues such as moving away from the use of diesel #2 and heavy fuel oil for power production; the introduction of a country-wide energy efficiency program; and pursue improved efficiency at GEBE.
Seek for renewable energy options such as a wind farm or solar panel arrays; enabling households and commercial clients to install small renewable energy sources like solar and wind power. Tax incentives and attractive loans for individual consumers would be also considered.
A study would also be made of the impact of introducing Smart Grid concepts for an improved electric supply chain from the power plant to the customer premises.
Next to renewable energy options, introduction of LNG should also be studied. The impact on tariffs as well as on the environmental advantages looks interesting according to the draft policy document. The LNG study may also cover natural gas supply for household cooking gas and for the transportation sector.
Sint Maarten would also look at whether it could benefit from inter-island cable connections that are currently being studied from Nevis/St. Kitts up to Puerto Rico, which could enable power delivery from geothermal sources in Nevis as well as power delivery from Puerto Rico. Sint Maarten would also look at the possible purchasing of geothermal energy from Saba by means of a submarine cable connection.
Sint Maarten would also continue to seek an attractive solution to a Waste Energy solution.
"These are some of the things that would be looked into and is part and parcel of our country's draft energy policy plan. We would like to initiate a supply side energy efficiency program with which fuel efficiency with GEBE will be improved with five per cent after two and a half years.
"Preparations for a Green Energy Plan are already underway. We need to assess the country's green policy and the objective is to have 20 per cent of the electricity demand of the country generated with renewable energy sources by the year 2015 and by the year 2020, this should be 50 per cent. ," Minister of Energy Affairs Hon. Theo Heyliger said on Sunday.
Mid-January 2012 kicked off the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All, and governments, the private sector, and civil society, have been called upon to help expand energy access, improve efficiency and increase the use of renewables.
"The international year represents building a new energy future for country Sint Maarten by harnessing the power of technology and innovation. This draft policy sets us on a course to making Sint Maarten energy efficient," Minister of Energy Affairs Hon. Theo Heyliger said on Sunday.
Globally, one person in five still lacks access to modern electricity and twice that number – three billion people – rely on wood, coal, charcoal, or animal waste for cooking and heating.
The new international initiative seeks to ensure universal access to modern energy services, double the rate of improvement in energy efficiency and double the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix, all by 2030.
