Clean Energy RISK AND REWARD – what it means for Turks & Caicos 

By Dana Malcolm 

Staff Writer 

#TurksandCaicos, June 19, 2023 – The realistic road to sustainability is difficult but has significant rewards, says a group of panelists speaking recently at the Fortis TCI Turks and Caicos Energy Forum.

Moderator of the Panel Sustainable Solutions: The Realities and The Rewards, Devon Cox, explained some of the well documented challenges to ‘going green’ in the Turks and Caicos including:

• Land availability;
• Financial investment;
• The complexity of multi island energy systems;
• Safety risks of unregulated grid connections;
• Supply chain issues and more.

“I can’t imagine the land issues on an island even in Arizona where there’s a lot of open land there’s still a lot of opposition.”

Susan Gray, President and CEO of Tucson Power said. She also explained that jobs would be lost and reliability would take a hit during the transition from coal and other non-renewable sources to sources like wind and the sun which can be fickle.

So in the face of these challenges combined with significant setup costs, and the time needed to iron out certain service issues, the questions some residents may ask is why bother?

Panelists explained that the impact on the environment and lowered costs were reward enough. The Turks and Caicos, being fully energy sufficient, would open a plethora of opportunities for the country.

The roadmap to actually seeing those benefits will include adaptive change, bringing stakeholders together and hearing their concerns and incorporating suggestions into the framework Gray maintained.

Nils Janson, Managing Director Policy and Planning at K&M Advisors explained that the process would also need to be data driven.

“We have to make sure there’s robust analytics behind [our] decisions and that it is comparable so when we are companying a gas project with multiple solar projects that we have the same level of robust analysis.

He said it would take partnership from all involved agencies and stakeholders. A major threat to successful implementation he explained would be “not doing the homework that’s required and not having solid execution.”

Stefan Wiens, German Wind Energy Expert and Mint Lab Founder explained what successful implementation could look like for the TCI.

“I made a short calculation and found out that a 10 percent share of electricity [between diesel and wind] here given the local demand and the local wind conditions could create a [wind energy project] the size of 11 megawatts.”

He said the 10 percent penetration of wind energy into the current grid was low hanging fruit and would only take a small to medium wind farm which could fit comfortably on the island of Providenciales,” said Wiens.

Another viable example would be the production of offshore wind.

The TCI Energy Forum was held on June 2nd at the Ritz Carlton Resort and gathered over a dozen experts to speak to audiences in short panels about what clean energy transition entailed and how it could be sustainably and systematically achieved.