PRESIDENT Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali will deliver the keynote address at a ceremony to hand over the solar photovoltaic power- generation plant with battery and building energy management systems at the CARICOM Secretariat on Tuesday, January 11, 2022.

The ceremony will also be live-streamed on Facebook and Youtube from 13:00 hrs.

Other speakers at the ceremony will be Dr. Carla N. Barnett, CARICOM Secretary-General; Hiroyasu Tonokawa, Chief Representative to the Caribbean, Japan International Cooperation Agency; Tatsuo Hirayama, Ambassador of Japan to the Cooperative Republic of Guyana and CARICOM; Brigadier-General (Ret’d) Mark A. Phillips, MSS M.P., Prime Minister of Guyana; and Dr. Armstrong Alexis, CARICOM Deputy Secretary-General.

The 400-kilowatt solar generation project on the forecourt of the Secretariat was undertaken through a US$17.8M grant agreement between the governments of Guyana and Japan, US$7M of which was earmarked for the project.

The transformation of the forecourt of the secretariat included the mounting of more than 1,500 solar panels, setting up servers and batteries, building a car port and allotting space for educational/recreational activities. Panels and other equipment were installed in the building, and staff were trained to man the operations.

The building is expected to get all of its energy from solar-based sources on a majority of its operating days. Overall, the secretariat is expected to have a net-zero energy balance on the basis of the fact that there will be available excess energy. That excess energy can provide power to the national grid during its off-peak operations.

It is anticipated that the benefits the secretariat will derive from the project will serve as an example of the transformation that can occur in public buildings across the region, and, by extension, an example of how the region can utilise the renewable energy resources at its disposal to move towards greater energy efficiency and resilience. (CARICOM)