Virgin Atlantic boss Richard Branson has pledged to assist Jamaica develop a ‘clean fuel’ which would not only be environmentally friendly but could drastically reduce the country’s heavy fuel bill.

This he said was communicated to Prime Minister Bruce Golding at a meeting last Wednesday in Kingston, and that a report outlining the details will soon be made available.

“We will be preparing a report to show Jamaica how to become self-sufficient in fuel and not have to rely on imported fuel and the expense of that,” Branson told the Sunday Observer.

Last year, Branson pledged to invest $3 billion over 10 years – including a hundred per cent of any proceeds from Virgin’s airlines and train companies – into developing clean fuels, renewable energy and environmental technologies.

Branson, who transformed Virgin from a fledgling record label created in the 1970s into a conglomerate dabbling in everything from the airline business to cell phones to record stores, said plans are in the very advanced stage for the development of this clean fuel.

He said the fuel should be ready by the middle of next year when one of the 747 aircraft in the Virgin fleet will begin flying on a mixture of clean and dirty fuel. “If we can make this clean fuel it will bring our bill down significantly,” he said.

Branson said there is no reason why Jamaica should not be efficient in clean fuel since it has wind, sun and wave power, the three critical combinations.

“Jamaica has all the potential of becoming self-sufficient in fuel,” he said.

Branson, who owns an island in the British Virgin Islands, said in six months it will be completely carbon neutral.

He said they will be willing to do a study for the Jamaican Government showing the country how to utilise wind and sun.

“Since I am here today, the electricity went out seven to eight times and that needn’t happen because the sugar plantations can be brought back to life,” he said.

Branson announced that his firm will be funding sugar and corn-based ethanol plants in Brazil to develop all kinds of fuels using sugar-based crops. “We are also in talks with the British Government about replacing fuels from the Middle East with those from Caribbean clean fuel,” he said.

.set to go on space flight in 19 months

Known for his daredevil adventures such as crossing the Atlantic ocean in a boat and flying over the Pacific Ocean in a hot air balloon, Richard Branson says he will be off on another adventure within the next 18 months.

This time it will be aboard the inaugural commercial Virgin Galactic flight set to launch as soon as the company’s private spacecraft is deemed ready.

He said he will be accompanied by his children and parents on the Virgin spaceship designed to carry six passengers and two pilots to an altitude of about 140km on a sub-orbital space flight.

Tickets on a Virgin Galactic flight are expected to cost £100,000 ($190,000).

Virgin Galactic will own and operate at least five spaceships and two mother ships.

According to Branson, the passenger flights will take off from a facility called Spaceport America in the New Mexico desert.

Virgin Galactic is one of several private firms vying to open up public access to outer space.

Branson told the Sunday Observer that his first trip will be to a frontier which has not been properly explored.

“I believe that one day we will populate other planets, and so I am looking at plans to put a hotel in space quite close to the moon,” he said.

Branson said he may even consider having the Jamaican-born Barrington Irving, of whom he spoke highly, trained at his space facility in New Mexico and being sent into space. Irving set two world records earlier this year as the first black person and the youngest ever to fly solo around the globe.

Branson also told the Sunday Observer that the secret to his success is that he is good at surrounding himself with wonderful people. “I like to say yes rather than no and I love to challenge myself,” he said, adding “if something is impossible, then I say let’s go for it.”

He said he loves to create things he can be proud of.

The name Virgin came about when Branson initially started his mail order record business, and wanted a name that would be eye-catching, could stand alone and not appeal only to students, his target market at the time.

One member of his small team suggested Virgin because they were complete virgins at business.