By Sebastien Malo
ROAD TOWN, July 31 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Nearly a year after Hurricane Irma knocked out power across the British Virgin Islands, electricity boss Leroy Abraham will be among the last residents to have their homes reconnected.
But Abraham, general manager of the British overseas territory’s electricity corporation (BVIEC), has barely had time to notice his own domestic outage.
“I was far too exhausted from giving everybody else electricity,” said the 48-year-old, gazing at his two-storey house, which was wrecked by the ferocious storm that tore across the Caribbean archipelago last September.
Abraham and other officials are working to avoid a repeat of the ordeal. One avenue they are pursuing is to diversify sources of electricity by adding renewables to the energy mix.
The British Virgin Islands (BVI) were plunged into darkness for six months when Irma, packing winds of 185 miles per hour (295 kph), uprooted electricity poles and left 400 miles (645 km) of cable littering streets and hillsides.
Like many small islands, the territory has long relied on costly imported fossil fuels to generate electric power.
But to better withstand future disasters, it is now moving toward solar and geothermal alternatives, like many others in the region from Montserrat to St. Lucia.
A series of solar energy projects is due to kick off soon, said Mark Vanterpool, BVI minister for communications and works.
“It’s in our interest to work very hard at getting as much as possible renewable energy produced,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
