During his visit to the Maritima Dominican solar energy facility, the largest in the country, consisting of 1,460 panels with a generation capacity of 510 kilowatts per hour, US Vice President Joe Biden called for major reforms to the energy sector in the Caribbean as a way of attracting private investment in alternative energy and reducing dependence on high-cost fuel imports. The DR is dependent on crude imports from Venezuela and natural gas from Trinidad & Tobago, both OPEC members.
In his remarks after the visit to the solar facility, Biden commented that energy costs in the Caribbean are the highest in the hemisphere and drain government budgets, holding back economic growth.
He said each country needed to come up with its own combination of solar, wind, geothermal, natural gas initiatives to move away from expensive and dirty fuel as a source of energy.
But he stressed that to succeed, open, transparent, market-based, clear set of rules that applies equally all the time need to be secured to provide the incentive for the private sector to make the investments in the required infrastructure for a more secure energy future. He estimated that the Caribbean needs US$12 billion in energy investments to provide for the region’s needs into 2035.
He acknowledged there are ingrained vested interests and the defense of the status quo holding back the needed energy sector reforms. He said that the US is willing to provide direct technical assistance and expertise to help create the environments that attract investments. He said “private investors have to be convinced first that there’s a regulatory climate that is predictable, that is transparent, that is fair, and one that allows them to make a fair return on their investment.”
Biden said that the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) would dedicate resources to the Caribbean to provide deals that match US government financing with strong energy projects. “We’ll match the two: strong energy projects and US government financing through targeted loans, through guarantees and other credit enhancements. US development financing can help unlock the supply of private sector capital for the new projects that are badly needed here in the Caribbean,” he said.
He also announced that the US would enable working with regional partners to align and coordinate energy initiatives of the international financial institutions in an effort to eliminate waste and duplication and to increase diversity of financial instruments that support energy projects.
He announced the US has plans to select one Caribbean country as a pilot project.
The project would help address energy sector reforms from A to Z, the entire panorama of needs from developing a new regulatory framework that is efficient and free of corruption, and would help identifying the appropriate energy solutions for the needs of the country, as well as promoting effective financial model to attract investment.
“The people on these islands [Caribbean] deserve a future with affordable, reliable, clean energy, where the electric bill doesn’t bankrupt a family or quite frankly bankrupt a nation’s budget; where leadership now lays the groundwork for energy security for generations to come”, he said.
In his closing remarks he commented that the changes are “already beginning to happen here in the DR… And together, we can make it happen all over the Caribbean, to give this country and this region a more secure, more sustainable and more prosperous future,” he said.
The Medina administration is about to start discussions for the Energy Pact and recently appointed the country’s first Minister of Energy and Mines that is working on restructuring the energy and mining sectors precisely to create the framework to attract world-class companies.
Read more:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/06/19/remarks-vice-president-maritima-solar