THE PROBLEM HAS 6 PARTS

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Barbados spends more than US$700M on oil and gas imports to power the National  Grid (11,000 barrels per day). In 2022, this rose to US$1.122B. 

This does not include additional fuel required for transport, shipping and industry. 

Per Energy Minister Kerrie Symmonds (2021): "This is unsustainable". 

Barbados has a goal of reaching Zero Emissions and be 100% renewable energy based by 2030 - this is not just good environmental sense, it is a financial necessity. However, no plan has been created (Private or Public sector) to achieve this. 

Until now.

The Arcalis Energy plan IS that plan.

2023 was the hottest year on record, worldwide. Fossil fuel emissions generate methane, a damaging greenhouse gas which heats up the atmosphere. 

Transport and storage of oil and gas is also fraught with disaster risk (shipwrecks, oil spills, oil rig fires, explosions, leaks etc.) Examples: Exxon Mobil (Alaska), Deepwater Horizon, the entire Niger Delta, Keystone Pipeline leak… the list is extensive.

The shipment of oil and gas is not only prone to disaster. It is also subject to massive price fluctuation due to global geopolitical tensions - OPEC reductions, US-Russia sanctions and tariff wars all drive up prices. 

On island, aging infrastructure further increases dependence on external energy. On hot days, which are becoming ever more frequent, sagging power lines result in

8-15% loss in transmission power. Substation fires due to aging equipment are also a major risk on Barbados. 

Further, storms bring risk. In 2021, Tropical Storm Elsa (not a category 1 hurricane until it had passed Barbados), felled trees and power lines, leaving much of the island without electricity for months.

Closely tied to energy production is Food Security. In 2022, Barbados imported US$817M in food and beverages, and of that, 50% came from the US. 

This dependence upon foreign sources for food is a major risk to Barbados (and other Caribbean islands). Hurricanes, tropical storms, and rough seas can delay or damage cargo shipments, leading to temporary food shortages.

The cost of food is another risk. Food prices around the world increased rapidly when the conflict in the Ukraine began and have only risen further with geopolitical tension in the Red Sea and restrictions on shipping due to drought through the Panama Canal. 

CARICOM's 25 by 25 initiative, to reduce 25% of food imports by 2025, requires large amounts of inexpensive energy to deploy the food technologies necessary to enhance local production. 

Barbados relies completely on aquifer water, which in turn is 100% dependent on rainfall.  Barbados is among the 10 most water-stressed countries in the world and the situation is worsening, with climate change bringing drought and less rainfall to Barbados, in addition to rising sea levels causing aquifer salt-infiltration. 

Further, the whole nation suffers from very old water infrastructure and frequent leakage - as much as 50% - in some areas.

In 2021, Barbados began importing water from neighbouring CARICOM states.

Barbados urgently needs extensive desalination facilities that do not rely on toxic waste water being buried and contaminating the aquifer system or on expelling that toxic waste water out to sea, where it will instantly create fishing "dead zones". 

  
Also see "News"

While solar power is the most developed green energy in Barbados, it is insufficient  for 2030 goals. It is intermittent, so doesn't generate power at night. Even good panels can only reach 22-24% efficiency in strong sunlight. On cloudy days, this can fall to 6%.

Solar also requires large amounts of land -  precious to two vital industries on Barbados: Agriculture and Tourism.

Rooftop solar means numerous individual service contracts that are hard to manage for the benefit of the whole island. Plus, a single cloud over the island can put great strain on the grid. These issues create a significant grid management issue for the Utility. 

Yet fundamentally there is a bigger problem - solar simply cannot generate the 1.07TWh of energy needed to reach the Barbados 2030 goal of 100% Renewable Energy. 

Peak energy usage on Barbados occurs between 6-10pm. Any energy source that cannot generate power during these hours (such as solar), must provide at least 4 hours battery storage to do so. If not, the buck is passed to the Utility, which will have to generate power using all available means - that is, by burning fossil fuels. 

Currently, the utility uses spin-up reserves to manage shortfalls in energy generation. These are expensive and inflexible, requiring several hours to engage and get up to speed, during which a large amount of fuel is used that does not actually provide energy.

Alternatives such as pumped hydropower storage are likely on Barbados though are extremely capital intensive (requiring several decades to pay off) and do not have the flexibility of battery storage, with adjustable location and instant-on capability. 

Collecting the biomass and waste to generate energy requires transportation and labour. Some of these waste and rotting natural products can also be toxic (e.g. sargassum weed has been found to contain high levels of cholera-like bacteria). This means that operational costs necessarily are very high. 

Note: Arcalis Energy believes that while Biomass Energy may not be an energy-effective solution for Barbados, the work that biomass companies do to reduce the large volumes of sargassum weed and other biomass waste is hugely important and this work should be supported and subsidized.

Also see News. 

Thermal Energy is not an option for Barbados - the island is not volcanic. 

Wave energy and ocean solar energy are immature and very few commercial installations have been commissioned worldwide. None have passed significant storm strength testing. 

Wave and Ocean Solar energy also have an additional issue around Barbados - large and unpredictable swathes of sargassum weed. These have grown exponentially in recent years as a result of warmer oceans. One clump could wreck an entire facility.  

Tidal energy involves installing large and complex turbines that are located in hard-to-maintain areas, with strong currents and murky waters, and such turbines are nearly impossible to scale fast in predictable increments. 

Nuclear energy is not clean. The waste products are radioactive for thousands of years. Power stations, transportation, storage and waste disposal all require massive security forces and constant maintenance to protect them from terrorism and accident. They are very complex, and that complexity has led to the phrase: "normally occurring abnormal occurrences" which means that the operators simply do not know what is happening… but that is "OK". And they also carry meltdown risk - e.g. 3 Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. 

When these factors and other costs are taken into consideration, nuclear power is the most expensive, most toxic and least secure energy source in the world. 

Nuclear power is also not viable for Barbados or most Small Island Developing States (SIDS).