Secondary school students have been encouraged to take advantage of all educational and training opportunities available in renewable energy.
This encouragement came from Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Business, Kevin Hunte, as he addressed the Barbados Sustainable Energy Youth Forum, at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, on Wednesday.
Mr. Hunte told the students: “We are, at this point in time, experiencing a dearth of tremendous technical expertise, which, very often, we need to import in various areas, and spend lots of money in the importation of that expertise.
“Therefore, I encourage you to take advantage of all educational and training opportunities relative to this space, so that we can develop within Barbados a cadre of young people who possess the technical know-how that we can then utilise in our bid, not only to expand in the renewable energy field, but also to keep on top of and on the cusp of innovation and technical development relative to our renewable energy space.”
The Permanent Secretary said Barbados is susceptible to the vagaries of climate change, and as a small island state, it is prone to the negative effects of external shocks.
“These external shocks range from COVID-19, disruption in the global supply chains, to extremely high fossil fuel energy costs, and therefore, there is a need for us as a country to look to reduce our costs and also minimise the impact of climate change, even though we are not significant contributors to it,” Mr. Hunte stated.
During the opening ceremony, Project Officer in the Project Execution Unit of the Ministry of Energy and Business, Rosalind Griffith, urged the students to become energy champions.
Ms. Griffith continued: “An energy champion is a person who engages in practices that conserve energy use…. Everyone can be an energy champion.
“You, young people, can help in this charge by turning off lights when you leave rooms, plugging out your phone chargers when not in use, closing the refrigerator door, and encouraging your parents to buy cutting-edge energy efficient appliances.”
Approximately 80 secondary school children participated in the event, which was hosted by the Ministry of Energy and Business. It was held on the sidelines of the three-day Caribbean Energies and Investment Summit, which ends today.
The youth forum sought to bring awareness of the opportunities available in the renewable energy sector. During the morning, two panel discussions were held on Employment Opportunities: With a Focus on Renewables, and Electric Vehicle versus Traditional Vehicles.
In the afternoon, the students toured the Barbados Light and Power’s Clean Energy Bridge Plant, at Trents Generating Site, St. Lucy, and Pavana Energy Limited’s wind turbines, at the Ashford Plant, Guinea Road, St. John.