I recently had the pleasure of a chance meeting with Professor Marty Seligman, one of the giants of 20th-century psychology. His seminal work has been the exposition of the theory of “learned helplessness,” which purports to explain why we behave helplessly even when we are able to do otherwise.

Afterwards, I dug into some reading on the theory, which is fascinating stuff if you’re interested in understanding the causes of motivation and action (or lack thereof). With apologies to Professor Seligman, I find myself wondering if, in relation to our energy problem, the Eastern Caribbean suffers from a collective, social form of learned helplessness.

It is a truism that energy is fundamental. It underpins and is inseparable from everything. Without a source of energy, no economic activity is possible. Farming, tourism, production, imports, exports, GDP, and development; all depend on it. And yet, paradoxically, energy is something we all seem to take for granted. When gas prices at the pump are steadily advancing and our electricity bills are being inflated by high fuel surcharges, we complain; when prices ease (or when we get used to them), we stop complaining and carry on with business as usual—which is pretty much what we were doing anyway, even as we complained.

It’s a natural assumption that, being intelligent and supposedly economic actors, we respond rationally to price signals in the market. This assumption is consistently supported by surveys that ask questions such as: “What factor would most likely cause you to cut back on your consumption of item X?” Invariably, most respondents select the answer that relates to an increase in the price of the item.

The problem is: this assumption isn’t supported by the data. For example, in Saint Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines and Dominica, the retail price of electricity (including fuel surcharges) practically doubled over 2001 to 2008, but during the same period, those countries’ per capita consumption of electricity increased in every year up to 2008.

In Saint Lucia, the retail price of electricity increased by 37 percent from 2003 to 2007. Over the same period, household electricity consumption went up by 8 percent and overall, per capita electricity consumption went up by 13 percent. It was only in 2008, when electricity prices skyrocketed by 23 percent and the global economy fell off the cliff, that personal electricity consumption fell.

It’s not just individuals. A 2010 survey of commercial enterprises in Saint Lucia, conducted as part of a larger energy awareness project, asked companies to rank a list of five reasons why energy efficiency was important. All of the respondents selected “reduction of operating costs” as their number one answer.

And yet the survey also found that only 18 percent of the respondents had taken any specific action over the previous year to implement a renewable energy technology, and none had taken any specific action to implement an energy efficiency technology. Further, only 20 percent of the respondents had ever had an energy audit conducted on their business—and one-third of those never even bothered to implement the recommendations of their audits.

A remarkable factor in all of this is that the companies surveyed did not see financing as a major barrier. The lack of financing was ranked third on a list of barriers to action.

Need one mention that governments are also guilty of this apparently irrational behavior? During the first ten years of this century, despite the unprecedented and economically damaging increase in oil prices from $25 a barrel in 2000 to almost $150 in 2008, only two OECS countries (St Kitts-Nevis and Dominica) took any real action towards breaking their dependence on imported fossil fuels. So there’s a disconnect between perception, reality and action. What accounts for this disconnect?

A clue can be found in the language of some of our energy sector leaders. Invariably, when energy ministers refer to the recurring problems of spiralling costs of energy, they invoke the phrase “due to external forces beyond our control.”

This channels classic Seligman: in the original experiments that gave rise to the theory, animals subjected to repeated, unpleasant, external stimuli eventually ‘learned’ to helplessly accept their lot and did nothing to change it, even when an escape route became available.

This is not to say that nothing at all has been done to address our energy problem. After all, most Caribbean governments in 2005 signed on to Venezuela’s PetroCaribe scheme in response to the alarming increases in oil prices taking place at the time. But the problem is, as useful as PetroCaribe has been as a cash-flow expedient; our involvement has done little or nothing to fix the fundamental problem: the region’s almost total dependence on the importation of expensive and environmentally unsound fossil fuels.

On the contrary, our involvement in PetroCaribe has likely made it harder for us to fix the fundamental problem. Since the scheme requires only part-payment up front for fuel imports, with the balance payable as a long-term loan at very low interest, it allows participating governments to avoid much of the immediate financial pain. This appears to have given some of our leaders the mistaken (and irrational) impression that fossil fuels are still cheap, which perception in turn reduces the incentive to act decisively.

This is a dangerous distraction, for the stark reality is that the Eastern Caribbean, like the rest of the world, needs to make an urgent energy transition. If we are to avoid a future characterised by energy insecurity and its attendant economic failure, our energy sector leaders must urgently initiate and lead a bold, focused and long-term commitment to exploit our available renewable energy sources (geothermal, wind, solar and hydro), and eliminate our dependence on imported fossil fuels.

Real action on this should have started years ago, as indeed it did in Nevis and Dominica. They’re already heading towards the escape route. Will the rest of us follow?

Herbert A Samuel

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Note: This article was originally published in The Analyst Magazine.  See here.

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What happens to a dream deferred?  Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? / … / Or does it explode?

Langston Hughes

~

Two years ago today, the name “Deepwater Horizon” started seeping into the world’s consciousness, after BP’s oil rig of that name exploded while drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

The fateful explosion and subsequent fire caused the death of 11 and the injury of 17 other workers on the rig – and triggered a chain of events that culminated in what is now recorded as the largest accidental oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry.

The disaster was massive and unprecedented; causing billions of dollars of environmental, physical and socio-economic damage, in the Gulf and elsewhere.

If history were a reliable guide, it should also have caused a fundamental reckoning, in this case about the world’s extreme dependence on fossil fuels, because: despite its massive scale and impact, the amount of oil spilled into the ocean over the course of three months amounted to only about six hours five days worth of America’s energy consumption.

(Note on the correction: the total amount of oil in the reservoir being drilled was estimated at 100 million barrels, or about five days worth of supply for the USA.  The amount of oil spilled was about 5 million barrels).

Two years on, it looks like that reckoning has been deferred.  What has not seeped into our consciousness is the need for bold and decisive action to decouple our future prospects from the use of fossil fuels that are ever more difficult, expensive and dangerous to produce.

And here in the Eastern Caribbean, our dependence of fossil fuels has simply  increased over the past two years.  Only Nevis, the smallest economic unit in the region (it’s not even a country in its own right) has actually done anything about the basic problem.  For the rest of us, a sustainable energy future seems to be a dream; one that continues to be deferred.

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Image: www.csmonitor.com

Multiple sessions will review traditional, renewable, and alternative power sources available to the island. Industry professionals will discuss energy development issues related to policy and regulation, financing and legal topics, and technology implementation related to low-cost reliability. Although this event is based in Jamaica, the discussion will be concerned with the Caribbean region and improving intraregional cooperation.

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Barbados faces exciting times with the possibility of the Eastern Caribbean Gas Pipeline coming to fruition. This conference will discuss utilizing local renewable resources, effectively managing oil use, creating a larger natural gas market, and implementing clean energy practices. Industry professionals will discuss energy development issues related to policy and regulation, financing and legal topics, and technology implementation related to low-cost reliability. Although this event is based in Barbados, the discussion will be concerned with the Caribbean region and improving intraregional cooperation.

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Roseau – August 9, 2011

The  West Indies Power (WIP) Environmental Impact Statement (EIA), which enables the company  to begin exploratory  “slim hole” drilling in the Soufriere Valley, Dominica, in order to determine conditions of the geothermal reservoir in that area, has been approved by the Government of Dominica.

West Indies Power Exploratory Drilling Rig

The drilling plan conducted by West Indies Power (Dominica) Ltd.  calls for the drilling of 2-3 “slim holes” to a depth of 1000m. Slim holes are 2-6 inch wells that are drilled to test for temperature, pressure, and solution chemistry. The results of these tests will allow WIP to determine the size and composition of the geothermal reservoir and to begin designing the geothermal power plant to use those geothermal solutions.

Construction of the drill sites will begin in 4^th quarter of 2011 and drilling is planned for 2^nd quarter of 2012. It will employ both foreign contractors and Dominican workers.

Kerry McDonald, CEO of WIP, stated “ WIP is pleased to have been granted the right be able to begin drilling in Soufriere. For years people have suspected that there is a geothermal reservoir in this area and now we will be able to finally prove it’s existence.”

West Indies Power (WIP) is an independent power producer specializing in the development of geothermal energy in the Caribbean with geothermal development projects on Nevis/St. Kitts, Dominica, Saba and other Caribbean islands.

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For further information contact:

Lali Diaz-McDonald
Media Manager
Phone: 1-869-665-3149
E-mail: alicialali.diazmcdonald@gmail.com
Visit our web site at: www.westindiespower.com

(Charlestown, July 25^th) – Today West Indies Power (WIP) began construction of the geothermal power plant on Nevis which will be located at Springhill near the village of Fountain.

The plant will be a single flash geothermal power plant that will initially have an output of 8.5MW. This plant has the capacity to be expanded to 13MW.

Nevis Geothermal project team at powerstation site. L-R: Pearlievan Wilkin, Geothermal Officer; Carlisle Powell, Junior Minister Natural Resources; Ernie Stapelton, PS Natural Resources; Kerry McDonald, CEO WIP; Carter Labarge, Project Coordinator CCC Group.

The initial work consists of site clearing, surveying, geotech testing, drill pad and power pad construction. This work will take approximately two months to complete and is being performed by various local Nevisian contractors.

The production drilling is scheduled to begin in September. The drilling rig will arrive in Nevis August/September, of this year, and will move to the Springhill site once the drilling pad has been completed.

Kerry McDonald, CEO of WIP, stated “It has been a long time coming but WIP is pleased to begin the construction of the Nevis Geothermal Plant that will bring low cost reliable electricity to the people of Nevis in 2012”.

West Indies Power (WIP) is an independent power producer specializing in the development of geothermal energy in the Caribbean with geothermal development projects on Nevis/St. Kitts, Dominica, Saba and other Caribbean islands.

For more information, contact:
Lali Diaz-McDonald
Media Manager
Phone: 1-869-665-3149
E-mail: alicialali.diazmcdonald@gmail.com
Visit our web site at: www.westindiespower.com

(Charlestown, June 27) - Today West Indies Power (WIP) signed a contract with PRMD West Indies Limited (PRMD) to drill two (2) 6000 ft directional geothermal production wells and one 7000 ft vertical injection well at the Spring Hill Geothermal Site on Nevis. It is estimated that each production well will produce 5MW’s of geothermal steam to power the 8.5MW geothermal plant that is being constructed at the Spring Hill Geothermal Site.

Geothermal drilling contractor PRMD's Rig 12, now in Belize, will be deployed in September to drill geothermal production wells in Nevis

PRMD will send, to Nevis, its’ Rig 12 which is a specially constructed geothermal production drilling rig. The drilling rig has the ability to drill large size geothermal production wells to 10,000 ft. The drill stands 185 ft high and requires a 100ft by 300 ft drill pad to operate. Each well will take approximately 45 days to drill.

Rig 12 is currently located in Belize and will be shipped to Nevis in August of this year. The drilling at Spring Hill is to commence in September.

PRMD is the Nevisan subsidiary of the Marriott Drilling Group from the UK. The Group has been conducting drilling operations for 65 years. It has extensive experience in geothermal well drilling, having drilled geothermal production wells in Central America, Kenya, UK, Ireland, and other locations.

Kerry McDonald CEO of WIP stated “WIP is fortunate to be associated with such a internationally experienced geothermal drilling contractor as PRMD. It brings experience in the field of geothermal drilling that will insure the timely success of the Nevis Geothermal Project and the delivery of reliable low cost geothermal power to the people of Nevis and the Caribbean.”

West Indies Power Holding B.V. is an independent power producer specializing in the development of geothermal energy in the Caribbean with operations on the islands of Nevis, Saba and Dominica.

For further information, contact:

Lali Diaz-McDonald
Media Manager
West Indies Power

Welectricity lets users compete with themselves and each other to reduce energy consumption

Sponsored jointly by Knowledge@Wharton and Wipro Technologies, a global IT services company, the tournament challenged innovators from around the world to compete for a total of $40,000 in cash prizes. The tournament inspired more than 160 submissions from six continents. The 44 teams that made it to the semifinals were asked to submit video presentations. From those, the top 14 entrants were invited to Philadelphia on April 27 to present their ideas to a panel of judges made up of academics and industry leaders.

“I can’t imagine a more diverse set of opportunities,” Karl Ulrich, Wharton’s vice dean of innovation and one of the judges, told the finalists at the end of the day’s presentations. “We had [entries about] world peace and customer data and carbon credits…. It was incredibly diverse.”

Awards were presented in four categories and a grand prize was awarded. Following the presentations by 15 finalists at the final event on April 27th, Welectricity was judged the “Best New Sustainability Innovation”.

Welectricity, a free web application (at www.welectricity.com) that allows users to track, compare and reduce their electricity consumption at home was launched on April 22, 2010, (the 40th anniversary of Earth Day) and to date has registered users from 86 countries worldwide.

Welectricity is based on principles of behavioural economics – it incorporates behavioural nudges to motivate people to reduce their consumption.

The first of these nudges is the provision of information. People need information to allow them to understand and, if necessary, adjust their consumption. But it is now well-established (though not widely recognized) that information, on its own, does not motivate people to change their consumption behaviour. Consumers also need regular feedback, they need to be able to set consumption-reduction goals (and to make plans to achieve those goals) and, most importantly, they need to be able to able to compare their consumption with that of similar others – a condition psychologists refer to as “social proof”.

Welectricity’s creator, St Vincent resident Herbert A (Haz) Samuel, notes that “psychologists and behavioral economists have found that social proof is one of the most fundamental and powerful factors that influence people to take action, and this is one of Welectricity’s key features.”

Welectricity packages these specific behavioural factors into a social network that incorporates the normal functions of social media – users sign up, set up profiles, invite and interact with friends on a simple, twitter-style messaging interface. On the Welectricity dashboard, a bar graph of the user’s electricity consumption (based on information entered from actual bills) is displayed and the consumption graphs of similar users can be superimposed and directly compared.

A key feature of Welectricity is that it is a low-carbon solution that only requires access to an internet-connected computer and some information from existing utility bills. No smart meters or other in-house monitoring devices need to be manufactured, packaged, shipped, purchased and installed for Welectricity to work. This Samuel sees as an important point.

“After all,” Welectricity’s blog notes, “what’s the point of using a whole lot of energy and carbon emissions to bring you a bunch of new stuff that’s meant to help you use less energy and emit less carbon?”

Welectricity is a winner of a 2009 IDEAS Energy Innovation Contest award, which was sponsored by GVEP International, GTZ, the IDB and the Korean Government. GVEP International (Global Village Energy Partnership) is an international non profit organisation seeking to reduce poverty through accelerated access to modern energy services. The funding for the Energy Innovation Contest was provided to GVEP International by the Dutch government (DGIS).

West Indies Power (WIP) announced today, it has awarded the CCC Group Consortium an Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) Contract for the development of the Nevis Geothermal Plant . The Consortium is lead by the CCC Group Inc. of San Antonio, Texas and includes Turbo Care Inc (a subsidiary of Siemens Energy Inc.) of Chicopee, Massachusetts;  Power Engineers Inc. of Haley, Idaho and Energy & Advanced Control Technologies, Inc. (EACT) of Saint Lucia, West Indies.

The contract is for the engineering, procurement, and construction of a 8.5MW net single flash power plant and related facilities, a 33 kv substation, 8 miles of buried electrical transmission cable between the Spring Hill Geothermal Plant and the existing NEVLEC Prospect Power Station with associated facilities.

The contract has a value of approximately USD$29MM and work is expected to begin at the Spring Hill, Nevis site in June/July of this year.

CCC Group, Inc. (www.cccgroupinc.com) is an international industrial general contractor with fabrication and engineering capabilities.   Operating as an employee owned company and with safety and quality at the helm of every project, CCC Group offers a broad scope of self-performed construction services to a wide range of industries including geothermal, transmission, alternative energy, and power as well as many other heavy industrial markets.  Along with a strong technical background, CCC Group is adept at working abroad and is committed to solid working relationships with local contractors and resources.  CCC’s success is proven in having a continuous presence in the Caribbean for over 12 years as well as a permanent base of operations in Jamaica.

The TurboCare Group (www.turbocare.com) of Businesses is the world’s largest network of independent service providers, operating in countless locations around the world. TurboCare is not only a global leader in the geothermal market, but provides customers with an unsurpassed combination of responsiveness, dependability and quality in the industrial and power generation markets in more than 100 countries worldwide. TurboCare has been serving the steam turbine industrial and power generation market in The Caribbean for over 20 years in Aruba, Curacao, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and the US Virgin Islands. TurboCare, Inc is a wholly owned subsidiary of Siemens Energy, Inc.

POWER Engineers (www.powereng.com) is an engineering consulting firm which specializes in energy projects: power plant engineering, and engineering for power transmission and distribution facilities. POWER is one of the world’s leading geothermal plant engineering companies, and has been responsible for design of more than 600 MW of new geothermal plant capacity – in Africa, Central America, Europe, North America, Indonesia, and the Philippines – in the past two decades. POWER is also the U.S.’ leading independent experts in transmission and distribution design, including submarine and underground transmission. POWER was involved in owner engineering and startup assistance to BRGM for the Bouillante II geothermal project in Guadeloupe.  POWER is an employee-owned company with 1,200 employees located in the U.S., South Africa, the U.K. and Chile.

Energy & Advanced Control Technologies, Inc. (EACT) is engaged in providing engineering consultancy and contracting in the areas of Building (MEP) Services, Electrical Distribution Systems, High-Voltage Switcgear and Equipment Testing and Power System Protection. The company places emphasis on those projects requiring specialized engineering and knowledge such as Underground Distribution, High-Voltage Systems and Automation. EACT and its strategic partners, Tripple-W, have extensive experience in substation engineering, including the construction, testing and commissioning of Substations and Transmission Lines for the Saint Lucia Electricity Company (LUCELEC) and  the Saint Vincent Electricity  Company (VINLEC),  ranging in voltages from 11kV to 69kV. The company is therefore well-placed to undertake both design and construction of all Utility Systems.

West Indies Power (WIP) is an independent power producer specializing in the development of geothermal energy in the Caribbean with geothermal development projects on Nevis/St. Kitts, Dominica, Saba and other Caribbean islands.

(Toronto, May 3, 2011) – Jay Yeo, president of Solamon Energy, while appearing on Radio 106 in Montego Bay today announced the company will be meeting with senior government officials in Jamaica shortly and confirmed plans for solar solutions targeting the island’s old open-pit bauxite mines.  Later in this month, Solamon executives will be in Kingston, Jamaica, to meet with leaders at local universities, manufacturers, airports, hotels and gated communities, in addition to politicians.

Bauxite, a surface mineral, is found throughout the limestone hills of western Jamaica and was mined extensively after the Second World War and then shipped abroad.  Now thousands of bauxite mines lay unused, dug to produce alumina, remaining eyesores on the tropical Caribbean island.  Research funds have been recently allocated to develop several of these mines into agricultural farms, and Solamon has the resources to supply a finite number of solar farms, whether fixed mount or tracking solutions.

Most of the old bauxite mines were bought by the Jamaican government in the 1970s, and therefore Solamon is meeting with senior government officials, including The Bauxite Institute, to determine priorities and to begin site surveys.   While turning barren hillsides into solar farms and generating electricity for local homes and businesses, Solamon intends to solve several problems.

Solamon will hire and train local teams to survey sites, construct arrays, and install, test, monitor and maintain equipment; Solamon will work with local officials to provide the best solution for the selected location, whether a university, hospital or office building, integrating not only solar, but also the latest wind technologies to maximize efficiencies; Solamon will effectively lessen Jamaica’s dependence on fossil fuel, notably oil, one Apollo Acre at a time, powered by the sun; and Solamon will continually provide self-sufficient solutions that pay for themselves, rather than enabling a foreign companies, including banks, to control power supply.

“Not surprisingly, we have found each solar installation is different,” Yeo explains.  “Each terrain is unique, yet each landscape offers new challenges and new opportunities.  We know there are thousands of old bauxite mines in Jamaica and we welcome local involvement, as we have no intention of becoming a utility,” he adds, “and truly hope Jamaican leaders will see the benefit of ownership.”

Solar farms are being integrated into fields and atop rooftops with renewed enthusiasm around the world.  At a series of upcoming meetings in Kingston, Solamon will be inviting numerous Jamaican companies to deploy Apollo Acres onto unused bauxite mines and land in general, whether hillsides, swamps or parking lots.

“We know approximately one Apollo Acre will power a small community, office or factory,” Yeo concludes. “Ten Apollo Acres upon 50 acres would generate 6.2 MW of electricity, supplying over 6,200 homes.  Once these solar farms are commissioned, we will assign and train a local company to manage and maintain these power plants, who can then grow their own business with each new installation.”

Solamon Energy designs and installs integrated arrays of ground-mounted photovoltaic cells that are connected by cable to each other and to converters, inverters, batteries and transmission points, utilizing minimially 5 acres of land per unit, which is called an Apollo Acre™.  Solamon is focused on packaging and delivering turnkey systems across the Caribbean, and seeks to open field offices in The Bahamas, Jamaica, Barbados and Belize.

For more information visit Solamon Energy