Solar power for households remains viable option, my energy bill is now lower

I see Vice-President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has thrown out a challenge for a company to produce solar power for the grid at 5 US cents per kilowatt hour (kWh). He will win. He is correct that large-scale batteries are not available to Guyana. Only countries like India and China who have the technology, raw materials, manufacturing, and management capacity can bring the price of solar down to 2 US cents per kWh when providing power of the order of 300 MW. But that was not my recommendation for little Guyana. I have plainly written my proposals in the public domain that emphasize the principle of the gear and gradual rollout of household solar. See, e.g., https://www.stabroeknews.com/2021 /11/01/features/in-the-diaspora/thesolar-alternative-for-guyana/.

I understand Dr Jagdeo’s argument that Gas to Energy (GtE) is to tide us over the 20 years while alternative energy to fossil fuel becomes cheaper; and that the Government is already rolling out solar power. The insufficiencies of the latter will warrant separate treatment. I just want at this point to credit Dr Jagdeo for getting right what the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) should have said (they were afforded the invoices to see exactly what the price of solar power installation was) and to discourage him from the GtE.

Let me give some 2023 figures for the systems I am recommending, so that those who will, can test my conclusions. It was not intended for the grid, but for households. Here is a current price estimate from Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) in China for anyone who wishes to