Saint Lucia is making headway towards its renewable energy goals with the approaching commissioning of the 3MW solar farm (which will meet 10% of the 35 percent by 2025 target), but another group could help the island with its goals. The Saint Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association has urged the government to allow hotels and similar commercial sized businesses to use large amounts of renewables. Currently, the commercial sector is limited to only producing 25 kWh of grid-tied renewable energy. The SLHTA has urged the government to give strong consideration to allowing hotels and other businesses to generate up to 20 percent of their electrical needs via renewable energy systems.
“The SLHTA sees these climate change commitments as a major opportunity for Saint Lucia that must not be allowed to slip away,” said SLHTA CEO, Roderick Cherry. “We think this is an opportune time for the SLHTA to build a strategic partnership with LUCELEC that will enable hotels and other tourism service providers to play their part by investing in renewable energy technologies,” he added.
“While we understand that the majority of hospitality facilities would not have the carbon footprint or the capability of installing a huge renewable energy photovoltaic system, there is still strong desire within our industry to embrace renewable energy and have it as a part of the energy mix,” said Roderick.
The SLHTA would also like to see the introduction of an energy billing system whereby consumers can purchase renewable energy as a power source under a standardised Green Certification program, when renewable energy becomes more abundant within the electrical grid.
