44 more Govt buildings to receive solar energy in 2018

The Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) is continuing its mandate of implementing renewable energy (RE) and energy efficiency (EE) programmes to fulfil the Government’s commitment to achieving a green economy.
GEA Chief Executive Officer (CE), Dr Mahender Sharma said 44 Government buildings across the 10 regions of Guyana would have approximately 648 Kilowatts of grid-connected and energy storage solar photovoltaic (PV) systems.
Sharma, who was speaking on the Agency’s 2017 performance and plans for 2018 at a recent forum, explained that the investment cost of this initiative was estimated at $260 million with a simple payback period of four years.

According to the CEO, in 2017, the GEA installed solar PV systems on the roofs of 70 Government buildings. He added that with regard to the 2017 energy efficiency programme, inefficient lights were replaced and contracts were awarded to install 10,427 light-emitting diode (LED) lamps and 3766 occupancy sensors at 46 Government buildings all of which will be completed in the first quarter this year.
“Some locations where the LED lights were installed include Vergenoegen, Uitvlugt, Stewartville and Anna Regina Secondary Schools, Ministry of Business and National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD),” Sharma explained.
Further, in 2018, the Agency will continue its energy programme, which will see more than 10,000 inefficient lights being replaced with energy-saving LED lamps and over 900 manually- operated switches being replaced with energy-saving occupancy sensors at 54 Government buildings.
Sharma said, “The buildings were selected based on a request by GEA to the various Ministries and Government entities to identify buildings for the installation of solar PV systems and the replacement of inefficient lighting systems.”
Although the previous year was a challenging one with tough deadlines, Sharma said the Agency was able to deliver its work programme and would continue to do so in 2018.