Are there other major problems that could be overcome simultaneously?

Yes, drought and a lack of sufficient drinking water for our major residential centres could be solved.

But allow no distractions from losing even a day in speedily implementing the energy transformation to all-renewables! Remember, ‘Keep it simple, stupid!’ is always the most effective approach to achieving actual results. Stifle talk shops.

After “all-renewables” have been implemented, then consider the following drought eradication measure as phase 2:

Jamaica has adequacy of rainfall every year to better manage droughts; we just haven’t been able to economically justify sufficient catchments and pumping costs ’til now. This “drought reduction” strategy involves creating new catchment areas downstream at low elevations, and the use of some of the newly available “excess power” to pump water from these catchments into the major city reservoirs — Hermitage and Mona, and others across the country. That way, our dams will be forever full with hardly any maintenance to speak of, and no real running costs to speak of either since the electricity is already available but remains unused (wind turbines are turned off when the excess power is not needed). This is a simple way of storing some of the excess power as water storage. So we’ve solved our drinking water problem, and the only added costs are the construction of sufficient catchment areas, along with the purchase of a few lift-pumps.

The excess water storage can additionally provide quick back-up power instead of batteries. We accomplish the conversion to power by returning the water to the low-elevation catchment areas via hydro-turbines. In this way we quickly generate electricity whenever additional power is needed. So we can now have generation at will — known as on-demand generation. This is power reserves whenever we need it, during peak hours or nighttime or very overcast periods when solar power dips momentarily. We have solved our water problems and created on-demand electrical generation in one fell swoop, with little additional expense. This system of pump-and-return water (pumped storage” is in use elsewhere in the world (check YouTube). This operation is a reusable cycle — do it over and over again whenever you need instantaneous power to cover shortfalls.

There is enough excess power availability from this all-renewables initiative to warrant new reservoirs in other townships to spread the use across the island.

Through this catchment-to-reservoir initiative, we have ensured water sufficiency for drinking and irrigation, and simultaneously succeeded in chopping the pumping costs for the National Water Authority (NWA) and the National Irrigation Authority by utilising some of the excess cheap power.

At last we can again proclaim Jamaica ‘Land of wood and water’.

We’ve created our own hydro power facilities. The more water we store, the larger these hydro facilities. Neat!

But let’s not attempt to solve other problems and get sidetracked from the first initiative. As I said before, the best results occur when we keep it simple. Reserve this project as a complement to the main initiative.

Just Google or YouTube anything I told you that is mind-boggling to you. Make up your own mind. The level of stupidity in what we do presently is astounding! We actually burn un-affordable imported fuel to produce steam, not power. The steam then turns the electric turbines. So spend US$7 million each and every day to create steam and import petrol? Does that sound like a sensible action to you, while our sun goes to waste? Say nothing of our excess water possibilities.

Can we turn around our country’s fortunes in four short years, and add strong conditions for growth? You decide.

It is not a matter of electricity costs. Elimination of foreign exchange drains is the real goal; it is much more impactful. (But we’ll take the power bill savings nevertheless). Our overly abundant fuel sources of sun, wind and rainfall finally powering our island out of poverty! Forty years late, but we will take it.

If you are still in doubt about any of my information, then listen to someone with more credibility than me on the subject — the head of Bloomberg’s New Energy Finance — at this link on the topic of Change and the Global Energy System: www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kU0uDGf6kY.

Also examine the bar graph of prices of recent solar installations across the world, at the bottom of this blog: cleantechnica.com/2014/11/29/dubai-shatters-solar-tariff-records-worldwide-lowest-ever/

David Cooke is a UWI-trained Electrical Engineer. Contact him at: deeco3@earthlink.net