In 2017, Hurricane Irma hit Ragged Island in the southern tip of the Bahamas. The Category 5 storm devastated the small island, wreaking havoc on its 100 residents. This was just one of many Category 4 and 5 hurricanes to hit the Bahamas in the past seven years, leaving thousands homeless, destroying power grids and devastating the tourism-based economy.
One of those hurricanes was 2019 dorian, the largest and most devastating storm to hit the Bahamas. It killed dozens of people, left nearly 30,000 homeless and/or unemployed, and caused $3.4 billion in damage, equivalent to a quarter of the Bahamas’ GDP. It also led CBS 60 minutes to hold a special on the resilient energy systems being built in the Bahamas in response to these increasingly severe storms.
Former Prime Minister of the Bahamas, Honorable Mr Hubert Minnis, was hopeful about the transformation of Ragged Island into Irma’s wake. He told 60 minutes“After Ragged Island was destroyed, I made a statement: Let’s show the world what can be done. We may be small, but we can be an example to the world.”
Working on that statement, we are partnering with Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) to design, develop and install a solar microgrid. A microgrid is a small network that generates electricity for local consumption, and can be disconnected from the mains so that the lights can stay on if the central grid goes down. The 390 kW Ragged Island microgrid provides sustainable and resilient power to every home on the island.
The Bahamas is made up of nearly 700 islands, about 30 of which are populated. Many of the smaller “Family” Islands, as they are called, are now following Ragged Island’s lead. This week, CBS walked The Bahamas special again. And in just over two years, the Bahamas has become a model of how other islands can become more resilient and lower generation costs.
Building on the success of the Ragged Island microgrid, the Bahamas now has renewable microgrids on Highbourne Cay, Chub Cay and Over Yonder Cay, totaling nearly 6.5 megawatts of renewable energy, enough to power 300 Caribbean homes. When you add that to the roof installations of homes, businesses and government buildings, renewables now make up 8 percent of generation in the Bahamas. While that’s a long way from the country’s goal of 30 percent by 2030, Christopher Burgess, project director of the RMI Islands Program, believes the Bahamas will achieve their goal. “The solar versus diesel economy is now slammed, solar has won and it’s just a matter of implementation, the Bahamas will get there,” he says.
And the appeal of solar power is rising as fast as the price of diesel – the islands’ main fuel for electricity. “The supply chain, global inflation and the invasion of Ukraine have driven diesel prices through the roof. In fact, it has increased by 60 percent since the beginning of the year,” says Burgess. “This has really made it clear what a great step the Ragged Island microgrid has been and how it can serve as a template for not only the rest of the Bahamian Islands, but the rest of the Caribbean as well.”
The Cost of Electrifying Islands
With diesel, generating electricity in the Family Islands in the Bahamas is extremely expensive. “The islands have very small, outdated energy systems. It costs 30 cents a gallon just to ship the fuel, on top of $6 a gallon to buy it,” Burgess says. And because BPL subsidizes the price of electricity on the Family Islands,”[the utility] lose money on all those islands. There is absolutely no profit.”
The renewable microgrids help BPL reduce its subsidy and losses. “This does not immediately save customers money in their account at the moment. And that only happens when you reach a critical point,” explains Burgess. “So this is the beginning of the transition to renewable energy, which will ultimately save the utility and customers money.”
Beyond the Bahamas
This wave of renewable energy is very exciting for Scott Pinder, who grew up in the Bahamas in the capital Nassau on New Providence Island. Although not considered a family island, it remembers the frequent power outages. “Not a week went by without a breakdown, especially if there was weathering,” he says. “Devices would get damaged and they would sometimes have to let us out of school because without generators, even the ceiling fans wouldn’t work and it would get too hot.”
Pinder, a civil engineer, is now the coordinator of the RMI on the island off the Bahamas. He is currently working on numerous projects on Abaco, an island where he spent many summers as a child. These include two microgrids, one at a government complex and medical clinic in Marsh Harbour, and one at a medical clinic in Coopers Town, as well as installing solar power at three primary schools.
“BPL is now planning solar plus battery systems for critical areas of Abaco to reduce generation costs and provide the ability to disconnect from the grid to keep critical segments, such as hurricane shelters, clinics and government services online during and after hurricanes. ‘ says Pinder.
Burlington Strachan, chief operating officer at BPL, and also a participating Fellow in RMI’s Energy Transition Academysays BPL is investing in microgrids not only to help the Bahamas meet its national renewable energy target, but also to improve energy security and lower the cost of electricity production in the country.
The two microgrids in Marsh Harbor and Coopers Town will provide a total of 3 MW of solar power and more than 4 MW/hr of battery storage, delivering annual BPL savings of $1 million, while providing health clinics and critical government facilities with significant energy resilience and emergency power. to get . And the three school systems will reduce the energy costs of the schools, while minimizing interruptions to school activities due to power outages. In addition, one of the schools will have a system large enough to be used as a hurricane shelter.
Solar energy under storm
David Gumbs is no stranger to hurricanes. Gumbs, director of RMI’s Global South program, grew up and still lives on the Caribbean island of Anguilla.
In 2017 he was huddled in his bathroom hoping to survive Hurricane Irma. At the time, Gumbs was also the CEO of the Anguilla Electricity Company and had to figure out how to restore electricity on the devastated island. “For the past 20 years, I’ve witnessed Category 2 and 3 hurricanes every two to three years, and we’d be without power for a week,” he says. “But a Category 5 hurricane like Irma, which happens every 10 to 20 years, can leave us without power for at least 100 days.”
Unfortunately, Category 5 hurricanes are becoming more common. That’s why Gumbs agrees that Ragged Island’s microgrid could be a model for the rest of the Caribbean. Although Ragged Island is small, the previous generation system was typical of an island network, with one centralized generating plant and a distribution system going in different directions across the island. “With the microgrid, Ragged Island is more resilient because you have two power systems, so you can power at least part of the network if a hurricane comes through,” he says. “Although the distances on larger islands are not the same, the concept is the same. And other islands can follow suit.”
However, even solar panels can be destroyed by hurricane force. That’s why the systems in the Bahamas are built to withstand the strong winds, driving rain and sustained flooding of Category 5 hurricanes. After Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, the RMI sent teams to the Caribbean to evaluate the root failures of solar PV systems and the key success factors of systems that survived. The teams then developed a list of recommendations to increase the resilience of the system. These recommendations became a standard set of best practices in the Caribbean. Ragged Island’s microgrid was the first to be designed to those standards.
The recommendations include both technical and policy approaches. Solar panels are now bolted to the frame instead of using clamps to keep them from lifting in high winds, the foundations are reinforced with double piles and systems are assessed by structural engineers. The policy recommendations are also followed. The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States has incorporated best practices from the work of the RMI into its building codes. And the Caribbean Development Bank uses the recommendations as part of its underwriting process for financing solar projects.
According to Pinder, “Ragged Island was the test case for designing and installing microgrids to the standards we hope will weather a Category 5 storm. Lessons have been learned and we are now looking to do that more in the country.” In fact, all the microgrids installed since then have been built to those standards.
Accelerating the energy transition
These renewable energy systems offer more than just resilience. “The Bahamian people have suffered for years from poor service and exorbitant prices,” said Pinder. “These projects will not only provide us with reliable electricity, but by putting renewable energy back into the grid, they will help stabilize and lower the price of our electricity.”
“Ragged Island was just the beginning,” Strachan says. “With the right support internally and externally, combined with new and improving technology, the energy landscape and future of our multi-island nation can really change for the better in many ways.”
And that journey can extend to the rest of the Caribbean and beyond.
Thanks to © Rocky Mountain Institute 2021. Published with permission. Originally posted on RMI output.
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