Public Protests and Lack of Government Support Jeopardize Major Renewable Energy Investment

It seems that quite often small islands can provide a condensed view of world-wide problems: As long as it is cheap today it’s ok.

Residents of the small Honduran Isle of Roatan, situated in the Caribbean sea just south of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula have recently taken to the streets in protest of the price increases imposed on them by the

island’s power company RECO. The protesters have on several occasions set up road blocks and picket lines all over the island, effectively bringing the island to a standstill for three days on one occasion and two on another. In fact, several cruise ships responsible for a major source of income to the island’s developing economy have been turned around and sent on their way costing the island an estimated $450,000 a day.

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The current owner of RECO, a Texan billionaire, took control of the company earlier this year with a pledge to increase the use of renewable energy. At present 100% of the island’s power comes from a group of old diesel generators. With the increase in tourism and demand for condo style holiday apartments with 24hr 360 day a year air conditioning, the demands on RECO’s present supply and generation systems are exceeding current capacity. The new owner wanted to invest significant amounts of his own personal wealth in bringing Roatan’s electrical supply up to today’s standards, with a focus on renewable options: Roatan is bathed in bright Caribbean sunshine and experiences good consistent trade winds throughout the year. The opportunities for developing a renewable power supply with less pollution seem pretty good. However, as the basic price of power has not increased since 1996 the need to pass some cost to the consumer is obvious.

Unfortunately there have been rumors that the owner is having second thoughts. After such severe protests, poor support from national and local government and general discontent among a large portion of the population, why should he stay and pour his own money into improving the island for everyone else?

Sadly many people on the island (at one time this writer included) fail to see the connection between turning on the switch and paying for it at the end of the month. If developers and island residents thought about efficiency then many of the problems would disappear overnight. For example, building holiday homes which are likely to be occupied for a month or two a year but have centrally controlled air conditioning on 12 months a year refrigerating empty space is surely not a prudent use of the island’s limited power supply?

Image credit: MicheKerr at Flickr under a Creative Commons license

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