Caribbean manufacturers push solar water heating
If you’ve spent much time in Barbados recently you might have noticed that on the roof of almost every new building is an odd looking contraption: a solar water heater. And while Belize is baked by the same sun as our Caribbean neighbours, you’ll rarely see a solar device. News Five’s Marion Ali attended a seminar today to find out why.
Marion Ali, Reporting
For the past two days the Caribbean Renewable Energy Development Programme and solar hot water manufacturers from throughout CARICOM have been engaging local interests on solar hot water heaters. The programme is designed to introduce safe and cost-effective ways of using energy. Managing the programme is Dr. Roland Clarke.
Dr. Roland Clarke, Manager, Caribbean Renewable Energy Dev. Prog.
“The Ministry of Home Affairs would help us to get in contact with local interest parties such as the Belize Hotel Association, bringing members together and then we will bring the manufacturers here. We put the two groups together and facilitate that discussion. We educate while we are here to help the hoteliers understand the nature of the technology, its economics, its financial impacts, as well as its environmental benefits. “
Today the target group included local hoteliers. Manager of the Radisson Fort George Hotel, Jim Scott, says while the idea makes good sense, this type of technology has not yet caught on in Belize.
Jim Scott, Manager, Radisson Fort George Hotel
“There are a few houses in Belize that have them. Commercially I don’t know any hotels that have them. There may be some very small hotels and so forth or some industries but I’m certainly not aware of them and it’s not something that you see locally advertised or the usage even taking place here much.”
But with conventional energy costs rising, solar water heating makes perfect sense. Henry Jordan is Director of the manufacturing company, Sunpower of Barbados.
Henry Jordan, Representative, Sunpower Company, Barbados
“Usually the initial cost of the solar system compared to the purchase for a home owner for an electric heater is a big difference. The solar system is always more expensive, but the problem you have with an electric heater is you have a daily running cost that never stops running, whereas when electricity prices go up your daily expense to heat water in the household becomes more expensive every month electricity prices go up. When you buy a solar system, we’ve estimated that a solar system for a family of four to five, an eighty gallon system, would sell for approximately fifty-six hundred Belize dollars and comparing that cost against the cost of an electrical system in use would be about nearly twenty-two months. That is the break-even period. After twenty-two months the cost of electricity is free because you don’t use electricity.”
For a large urban hotel, like the Radisson, Jim Scott says it’s worth a close look.
Jim Scott, Manager, Radisson Fort George Hotel
“Our energy costs are very, very high – gas, butane, electricity. Any type of resources that we can use that are essentially free with the exception of the actual hardware products, the maintenance and installation, they say the efficiency and the payback on these types of products are very quick, two years is the magic word that’s being used today, in terms of the payback, so obviously wherever we could reduce our costs that goes straight to your bottom line and the benefits are ongoing after the payback period, so that’s kind of what we’re looking at, and of course at the end of the day the product also has to be efficient in the sense that we’re delivering the hot water that our customers would need and of course that we would need in order to keep a very high standard.”
But how about those times of the year when it’s rainy or cold and we don’t see the sun for days?
Henry Jordan
“Every tank that is manufactured for solar system comes with an electrical back up. The size of the element varies depending on the size of the tank to heat the water rate per hour and therefore an eighty gallon system would have an electric heater in so all you have to do is turn on your electrical booster switch for one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening and that will heat the whole tank up for the family of five.”
Jordan says the average running cost for this would be a little over five dollars per day for a family of five. The life span of a solar water heater is between ten and fifteen years.
Marion Ali reporting for News Five.
Although solar heaters are exceedingly rare in Belize it must be noted that the home of Prime Minister Said Musa has been equipped with a solar heater for the last twenty years.
