Can the use of alternative energy for the production of the supply of electricity in this country allow for more natural gas to be used to earn more foreign exchange?
This was just one of the issue explored during Day One of the 2025 Caribbean Sustainable Energy Conference at the Hilton Trinidad.
00:00During the 2025 Caribbean Sustainable Energy Conference, the Energy Chamber's president and CEO, Dr. Thackeray Driver, moderated a panel that examined issues such as alternative sources of energy instead of natural gas, but the supply of electricity in Trinidad and Tobago.
00:16If we divert some of the natural gas to more value-added use and then use some of these alternative energy sources to power the grid, then that's probably the best way we can work the system given the current national policy.
00:37The president of Yarra Trinidad, Trevano Stern Mwasi, emphasized the point by using, as an example, the production of ammonia at the Point Disus industrial estate.
00:47So, for Trinidad to continue to be relevant as well as the largest exporter of ammonia, it needs to look beyond just volume.
00:57It needs to look at the carbon footprint of the product being produced to export.
01:03Otherwise, displacement of producing assets globally will not only be driven by cost factors anymore.
01:14It will also be driven by carbon footprint.
01:17Yarra Trinidad's president indicated the issue is about sustainable energy to protect the viability of downstream exports such as ammonia.
01:27So, there is real opportunity that's from both the hydrogen integration into Point Disus.
01:34But to come back to your question, yes, it also creates the opportunity to have a conversation about the cost of renewable power when dedicated to that purpose.
01:45It's a difference from the domestic market.
01:47That's right.
01:48You know, there will be a separation there and the two markets will then have different pricing strategies that could support sustainability of both.
01:55The panel at the conference also discussed the potential of wind and solar power in that regard.
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