BY the end of this year, Senator the Hon. Darcy Boyce, Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for Energy and Telecommunications, hopes to have recommendations on the licensing of independent power producers in order to carry forward their renewable energy programme.
This comment came during a signing ceremony that took place in the conference room of Government Headquarters yesterday morning.
“We expect that by the end of this year, we would have recommendations on the licensing systems for the independent power producers, so that we would be able to put that part of our Renewable Energy Programme into place early next year,” he said.
“We’re looking to be able to write applications for the independent power producers to get licensed, so that they would be able to produce more than one megawatt of power at a time. So we’re hoping that that would get in position to call for those license applications in the new year.”
In addition to that, Boyce noted that they also planned to go to the Fair Trading Commission (FTC) early next year to present them with some proposals for pricing of different types of renewable energy on a small and large scale. He explained that this step was important as they planned to use the information to give certainty to the investors by allowing them to see that they would be able to earn, which would therefore encourage them to make the investment in the systems.
“So we’re making some progress. Obviously not as fast as one would like, but we’re getting there and we’re trying to get there without making any mistakes,” he said.
As the Government moves forward with the programme of installing renewable energy, Boyce went on to reveal that his staff was in the process of planning a programme that they would be able to carry the matter of energy efficiency through using electricity as economically as we can to all parts of the country as well as all classes and income groups of persons in the country as well.