Hydroelectric power pitched as lower-cost renewable option

Former Central Bank Governor Dr Delisle Worrell has predicted that efforts to lower prices through the existing system of distributed power supply – currently used by Barbados – will fail.

He is urging Caribbean governments to consider hydroelectric power as a potentially lower-cost route to renewable energy, warning that Barbados’ distributed solar-and-wind model could leave consumers facing higher prices and costly grid upgrades.

“The cost of renewables may rise even further if the country chooses to go the route of distributed power, licensing individual consumers and businesses to supply power to the grid,” the former economic consultant to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) wrote in his September Economic Newsletter entitled Alternative Strategies are Needed to Lower Renewable Energy Prices.