The Caribbean energy sector faces tough choices this year because of steadily high crude oil costs, trade deficits amid a continuing economic downturn and concerns over climate change that require choices the region's countries cannot make without more cash in their coffers.
At issue is the Caribbean's conundrum: oil prices it can ill afford to pay and finding substitutes for oil that it cannot fund.
Some small gains have been made in the Caribbean as part of U.N. programs to help develop renewable energy sources, but the quantities are minuscule compared with the region's requirements.
As a result, economic development is likely to remain inhibited by the energy constraints, said analysts attending an international Caribbean energy conference in Trinidad and Tobago.
The conference Jan. 25-27 is an energy-sector event in the Caribbean region. Although the conference this year has set the theme as "energy and entrepreneurship," delegates said the subtext is that the Caribbean has to rely more on its own meager resources to cope with its growing energy needs.
Caribbean industry experts are keen to learn more about renewable energy extraction techniques from more advanced societies but do not want to get tied down in ventures that raise huge credit schemes they cannot handle.
Delegates said while the Caribbean's own methods of producing renewable energy — whether hydroelectric, solar or soil based — are often cheap and primitive, technologies offered by companies from outside the region are advanced and promise higher yields but required large cash outlays as initial investment.
A meeting point had to be reached to learn from experiences elsewhere and adapt technologies to the Caribbean's needs economically and with tangible results, said the delegates.
Caribbean countries are looking to forge closer ties with emergent economies like China, India and Latin American energy producers, including Brazil and Venezuela.
The Caribbean energy sector has attracted international attention lately. Soon after the Trinidad conference, many delegates have been invited to attend yet another conference on the subject in the Dutch Antilles island of Aruba.
The Aruba conference will also look into issues of electricity theft in Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, pipelines in the region, wind power, biofuels and geothermal energy.
Creating energy from waste will be examined at the Aruba conference, organizers said.
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