Ministry of Public Utilities Embarks on Study on Belize’s Energy Needs

Michel Chebat

Minister of Public Utilities Michel Chebat said that the government, particularly his ministry, has begun a study on Belize’s energy needs in order to come up with a strategic national energy policy. According to Chebat, that document will set the country’s energy agenda for the next five to ten years.

Michel Chebat, Minister of Public Utilities

“It is critical for us to try to find ways to have what we call electricity security and energy security in our country. As you know, a large portion of the energy we use today is being brought in from abroad. So it is in our national interest to ensure that we have sources locally that we can control, and not any source but sources that are non-fossil sources.  We’re looking at the while issue of waste and how we can convert waste to energy, how we can use the sargassum, how we can use the municipal waste that we collect across the country, how we can take that and convert it into energy.  We expect to have at least two more workshops before that policy paper is finalized.  Recently in the news you saw a bit about the electrical vehicles that we’re going to be introducing. We’re collaborating with the Ministry of Transportation and the Belize City Council, so that, I believe by the first quarter of next year, we’re going to have pilot electric buses in the city and I think if my memory serves me right, we’re also going to have a bus run between Benque and Belize City. So we’re piloting these to see how we can move away from the traditional vehicles that we use in our country and to lower our carbon emissions.”