With Jamaica's oil bill set to pass the US$-billion mark this year, the need to find and utilise alternative sources of energy must become a priority, said the prime minister of Jamaica, Portia Simpson Miller.

Speaking last Thursday at the official opening of JB Ethanol, Jamaica Broilers' ethanol dehydration plant at Port Esquivel, St Catherine, the prime minister said: "Finding appropriate and affordable sources of energy is a major challenge for countries like ours. It is a challenge we must tackle in order to increase production, improve productivity and compete globally.
"Jamaica depends far too heavily on imported oil as our source of energy. Our oil bill has risen dramatically over the last five years as oil prices continue to increase and there seems to be no end in sight. Last year our oil bill was US$1.7 billion."

Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller (left) looks on as president and CEO of the Jamaica Broilers Group, Robert Levy (centre), shares a moment with Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (right).

Underscoring her point is the fact that the transportation sector uses 41 per cent of imported fuels followed by the bauxite and alumina production sector, which accounts for 35 per cent and electricity power generation, which takes up another 19 per cent.

The challenge presented to Jamaica is the efficient use of available energy resources while it explores the viability of alternative fuels. At a bio-fuels seminar put on by the Brazilian Embassy at the Jamaica Pegasus last week, castor beans were identified as a viable bio-fuel to be produced locally and used as a cost-effective way to cut Jamaica's growing energy bill.

Jamaican businesses, like the rest of the world, are beginning to take seriously the merits of ethanol.
Jamaica Broilers has invested J$1.3 billion in its plant with the equipment supplied by the Brazilian company Dedini and raw materials by Bauche Energy, also from Brazil. This ethanol dehydration plant can produce 60 million gallons of fuel grade ethanol annually.

Speaking about Jamaica Broilers' bold initiative the prime minister said: "I urge other players in the private sector to follow the lead of the Jamaica Broilers Group and seize the profitable opportunities which are opening up within the energy sector. I have instructed the minister (Phillip Paulwell) to ensure that his ministry gives full support to any private sector company that shows an interest in that area."

She made it clear that Jamaica was now committed to achieving a 20 per cent use of renewable energy sources such as wind, hydro and solar by 2020. In keeping with this policy, by next year all gasoline in the country will have a 10 per cent ethanol mix, declared the Prime Minister.
On a visit to Jamaica last week, the President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva outlined the importance of bio-fuels to the developing world and said that his country would step up investments in Jamaica's sugar and ethanol projects.

Brazil is second only to the United States in terms of the production of ethanol. Brazil now produces 18 billion litres of ethanol a year and accounts for 50 per cent of world exports.

In a recent special survey on Brazil the Economist reported, "It will take a while for any other country to copy Brazil where ethanol already accounts for 40 per cent of the fuel used in cars."

The Inter-American Development Bank's Global Biofuels Outlook 2007, titled A Blueprint for Green Energy in the Americas says soaring oil prices and concerns about climate change have turned what used to be a cottage industry - clean energy, into a booming business.
It is estimated that by 2010 some US$100 billion will be invested in clean energy, compared to US$38 billion in 2005 and just US$5 billion a decade before.

"Increasingly, we in the south must seek to deepen our economic and business links. We cannot afford the luxury of crying over the spilled milk of rapidly eroding preferential access to the markets of the north.

"Nor can we merely bemoan the sharp decline in official development assistance and the many bumps along the way to the Doha Development Round. We in Jamaica are very excited about the possibilities of deeper co-operation with Brazil, a regional power in the hemisphere and one of the most influential countries in the emerging world," said the prime minister, speaking at the business forum on bio-fuels held at the Jamaica Pegasus last week.

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