SENIOR Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, says the government remains strongly committed to advancing the national energy transition agenda including through promoting the use of renewable sources of energy, including solar energy.

Dr Singh was, at the time, speaking at the Fourth Regional Committee Meeting for the Latin America and Caribbean Region of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) on Friday.

Solar energy, the minister said is playing an important role in achieving energy inclusivity, particularly through the deployment of solar solutions in hinterland and remote communities.
The minister reminded those at the meeting that Guyana has an off-the-grid population with these persons residing in hinterland and outlying areas.

As such, he posited that “with the support of the Indian Exim (Export-Import) Bank, we have already concluded a project to procure and deploy 30,000 household solar units to bring solar electricity to 30,000 homes.”
The minister added: “Even though our energy transition might not comprise solar as the bulk producer to the grid, solar energy is playing a tremendous role in achieving energy inclusivity because even though it is at a small level, at the community level, from that one project, 30,000 households which did not have electricity will now have electricity. They were too far away from the grid to be able to connect but 30,000 households are now going to get electricity for the first time ever and similar solutions can be deployed for other remote areas.”

Minister Singh re-emphasised that the Government is open to exploring various renewable energy resources and he also outlined its commitment and focus on ensuring that the administration achieves all of its goals in relation to its Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) as contained in its manifesto.

The release noted that key to Guyana’s Low Carbon Development agenda is clean energy.
“Government intends to utilise its access to low carbon development energy resources (solar, hydro, wind, biomass and natural gas) as a means of decoupling its economic growth from using fossil fuels for electricity. This will ensure that the rising demand is met and greenhouse gas emissions are kept low,” the release concluded.