The University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) is in the throes of yet another solar energy project to cut costs, such as its $16 million per month electricity bill, and is willing to lend its talent and experts to develop solutions for the country and the region.

Dr Kevin Brown, UTech president, spoke of the development on day one of the university’s International Climate Conference at its main campus in Papine, St Andrew, on Thursday.

According to Dr Brown, the symposium emanated from the recognition that climate change is a real challenge for Jamaica, and UTech has been forced to adapt to deal with the impacts.

“You must have realised that Jamaica is hotter. When I left Jamaica [23 years ago] it was not this hot. When I left this institution as a student we did not have air conditioning — only special people. The vast majority of the campus was ventilated through natural air; the buildings were actually built like that,” Dr Brown said.

“Now, I have close to 1,000 AC units on this campus, and currently my electricity bill is around $16 million per month, so when my staff comes and they turn on the AC, which they must have, the electricity bill is quite significant. So when you talk about climate change the impact is also financial,” he noted.

“For a university like us, a public institution, that’s a lot of money, so we are going to move quickly to solarisation. We are moving to install solar as quickly as we can. We need about two megawatts of it and we will pursue that with vigour and energy,” the UTech president said.

Dr Brown, in noting that some 200 of the university’s AC units are currently down, said, “Climate change for me, as a head of entity, is very real.”

In 2014, UTech commissioned a 100 kilowatt solar energy project, which was completed at a cost of US$308,000 out of a need to lower its electricity bill which, at the time, averaged $20 million monthly.

The system was designed by Alternative Power Sources (APS) in three phases — first on the front lawn, which was fitted with 22 panels providing a total of five kilowatts; then on the faculty of engineering building where 160 250-watt panels were installed to provide 40 kilowatts; and finally on the faculty of education and liberal studies building, which was outfitted with 220 250-watt panels providing 55 kilowatts.

It also served as training for approximately 30 engineering students who worked different shifts on a third of the project which APS boss Damian Lyn said, at the time, could produce 450 kilowatt hours daily.

“That amounts to approximately between $500,000 and $550,000 a month in energy cost savings,” Lyn told the Jamaica Observer at the time. “So it’s a very good investment for the campus.”

On Thursday, Dr Brown said UTech is ready to offer solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change.

“We at UTech know all about climate change… so, as we transform our institution, becoming research-intensive is a major imperative because UTech is here to help solve [the] climate change problem and we have lots of talent… experts who stand ready to deliver solutions along with our students. So we are here to do our vision for the country, not just to produce a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) workforce, which we have been doing, but also to innovate to solve our local and regional problems,” he said.

He, at the same time, expressed concern about the virtual silence from ordinary citizens about climate change, adding that it was hoped that the conference would help to sensitise more people about the issue.

In the meantime, chair of the Conference Organising Committee Dr Glendon Newsome, in delivering an overview of the event, opined that the impacts of climate change “can be just as devastating as the results of crime”.

“The levels of heat that we are now experiencing, not only during the summer months but almost all year, some of us — who had grannies who used to talk about the ‘living hell’ — might be saying to ourselves ‘it may be that we are experiencing the living hell now’,” he said.

“When you see what is happening like, for example, what we witnessed in Johns Hall in St James recently, where cars were just floating, we don’t want to lose anymore to climate change or the effects thereof and that is why the university has taken this step to inform and advocate on the adaptation and mitigation strategies which we all need to be aware of if we are going to nurture a sustainable and climate-smart environment,” Dr Newsome stated.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, in delivering the keynote address at the function, lamented that Jamaicans are not more responsive to climate change while prodding learning institutions to do more on the subject.

“That’s why we have universities. It’s the universities that need to get these complex issues to the common man. The role of the university is not to keep knowledge circulating in its halls; it is to circulate the knowledge outside the society to combat the high level of misinformation and ignorance that exists,” Holness said.

“We spend billions of dollars every year on universities and they do great work, but it’s trapped inside textbooks and your computers and within your campuses. It needs to get out there to the common person so that they become informed. Our universities don’t get into the conversations to get people to understand that they need to make proper choices as citizens,” the prime minister said.

In urging UTech to publish its research data on the impact of climate change on road surfaces and the solutions, Holness said the Administration was ensuring that major road projects now being undertaken are built as much inland as possible and away from coast lines to ensure that in the event of a catastrophic weather event travel is still possible.

Jamaica, according to the Climate Change Knowledge Portal of the World Bank Group, “faces very serious threats from hotter temperatures, droughts and floods linked to climate change, and an existential threat due to sea level rise”.