Caribbean island develops energy storage policy

According to foreign media reports, the government of the Caribbean island country of Barbados has recently formulated a national energy storage policy, and it is expected that the country's energy storage industry has billions of dollars in investment potential.

Caribbean island nation of Barbados is eyeing billions of dollars in energy storage investments

Barbados Energy Minister Kerrie Symmonds said on Aug. 22 that when the government formulated the policy, energy storage was expected to be the next frontier for renewable energy investment, according to local news outlet Barbados Today.

Symmonds said the most important part of the policy is that all large-scale renewable generation facilities must be equipped with energy storage systems.

The plan is for utilities and private companies to own centralized energy storage assets, including small systems owned by households, and the country's government has awarded 4,000 licenses so far.

Speaking at the Barbados Renewable Energy Association (BREA) annual conference, Symmmonds said: “The energy storage system is expected to generate $1.75 billion in investment for Barbados. We are not looking at deploying a single energy storage solution, we are considering several Grid-related services.”

Symmonds continued: “A service that reduces or eliminates the need for energy curtailment is in the best interest of the Government of Barbados and one of greatest interest to independent power producers and investors.”

As industry media reported earlier this year, Barbados is targeting 100% renewable energy use and carbon neutrality by 2030. In April, the Inter-American Development Bank issued a request for expressions of interest on behalf of the country for consulting services to help develop a competitive procurement framework for utility-scale renewable energy generation and storage systems.

The government has emphasized that it wants the procurement to be technology-agnostic, a point also mentioned in recent comments from Symmonds.