How can JA tackle high oil prices

[crosswire]

How can Jamaica tackle the rising oil prices?

JA has enough problems already, unemployment, crime, and others but those are different discussions essencially

JA seems to be going backwards in technology and that is just a shame. Back in the 80s, there was a worldwide trend for recycling. That is so under-developed now in JA while other countries recycle cans and plastic bottles, and consequently save to their pockets

Solar energy is basically non existing. We Jamaican should have one refinery that can produce refined silicon for solar panels, and also recycles damaged solar panels. It should be powered from a solar farm itself. We can set very low prices on our panels. Furthermore, solar is more than viable in JA because of the very hot sun, so we could produce in bulk for many home, and further recieve more revenue tru collective profits. These technologies exist for years upon years, why is none even attempted!

There are other ways to use alternative energy

Take a little read from wikipedia, please.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica

International trade in 1999
Exports: (1999) 1,238 billion $ (Natural resources: 55.7%, Food 19.1%, Bananas 4%, Chemicals 3.6%, Machinery 2.2%). The main export countries: USA 33.4% , United Kingdom 13.4%, France 5%, Germany 4%, Canada 14.1%, Netherlands 10.2%, Norway 5.8%, Japan 2.3%.

Imports: (1999) 2,89 billion $ (Energy 50.5%, Machinery and Equipment 7.6%, Consumer goods 33.2%). The main import countries: USA 48.1%, Trinidad and Tobago 7.8%, Japan 6.9%, United Kingdom 3.7%, France 5%, Canada 3%.

There is nothing quoted for 2007, but I would really expect transport to be greater, as well as electricity use, thus more oil imported.

Please read again!

Energy
Jamaica depends on petroleum imports to satisfy its national energy needs. Many test sites have been explored for oil, but no commercially viable quantities have been found. The most convenient sources of imported oil and motor fuels (diesel, gasoline, and jet fuel) are from Mexico and Venezuela.

Jamaica's electrical power is produced by diesel (bunker oil) generators located in Old Harbour. Other smaller power stations (most owned by the Jamaica Public Service Company - the island's electricity provider) support the island's electrical grid including the Hunts Bay Power Station, the Bogue Power Station, the Rockfort Power Station and small hydroelectric plants on the White River, Rio Bueno, Morant River, Black River (Maggotty) and Roaring River. A wind farm, owned by the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica, was established at Wigton, Manchester.

Jamaica imports approximately 80,000 barrels of oil energy products per day, including asphalt and lubrication products. Just 20% of imported fuels are used for road transportation, the rest being used by the bauxite industry, electricity generation, and aviation.

Jamaica produces enormous quantities of hydrous ethanol (5% water content), most of which appears to be consumed as beverages, and none of it used as motor fuel. Facilities exist to refine hydrous ethanol feedstock into anhydrous ethanol (0% water content), but the process appears to be uneconomic at this time and the facility remains idle.

Post any ideas

Gas price terrible!

Well for me, I am getting at least one 85W solar panel imported for a wopping 450US; connect it to 3 laptops (each using about 25 W DC average since the adapter is rated at 65W DC and can rapid charge the battery and power laptop in high gaming mode at the same time) I wish that I could do more.

[danthony]

the general population need to help in this regard. ok. we need to make sacrifices in order for our country to move forward in these trying times.

first. the government need to get the train services back in operation, n we need to use it. park our cars when going to work n take the train. this means we need an efficient service. as matter of fact, we need a very efficient and reliable public transportation system.

government in my opinion need to halt the import of say more than 3,000 motor vehicles per year! yeah i knw many persons have alot to say about that, but its necessary. too many vehicles on the road & towns are way too congested. 2 years ago it took me 5mins in traffic fr whr i work to go uptown on a busy day, now it takes 15-20mins. that means i'm using 3 to 4 times the amount of gas i used to use, n at that time gas was like $40 something per litre. its now $80 something. the gov n some will argue ovr import duty revenues but we need to look at the broader pic. in 10 years time we may not be able to afford oil to drive these vehicles they'll lose anyways. better have less cars on the road than none at all. lol. stop the importation of vehicles with CC ratings exceeding 3.4CC for cars n SUV's, pickups, 4.0CC. or increase duty on vehicles exceeding 4.0 to about 300%. so that the additional can go towards buying oil. licensing fees for these vehicles should be increased plenty also 90% of big pickup owners do not use these vehicles for the desired purpose but rather sport around. why on earth do you need to drive around in a 5.7 litre F150 or GMC, or Tundra, or HUmmer? it doesnt affect these owners too much, but the poor is feeling the effects..... theses car makers are also to be blamed cos every year they keep making bigger engines. now they are feeling it too, as sales for these unit are almost non existent......

we need to car pool if necessary too. spend less time on the COMPUTER.
stop being lazy n modernized and not buy self frost fridges n some huge fridge and appliances i see selling......

use more solar energy, just this week they introduced a very good initiative with NHT whr they are lending $1mill to purchase solar energy equipment for private homes. this is very good. i would say wind also, but solar will suffice for the mean time as it can be done on an individual basis rather than the wind generated option. i think all government run places should switch or partially switch to solar energy.

stop the importation of bulbs other than energy saving!
. also, big appliances should be heavily taxed. LUXURY should come at a high price for the individual who thinks he should have it. and dont mix up
"COMFORT with LUXURY" lol. any vehicle that is smoking the owner should be ticketed as this mean the engine is not running efficiently n is burning more fuel than necessary, 90% of the time anyways.

What we need are persons in charge to make more tough decisions that will benefit us in the long term, not the effect we will see immediately afterward, but in 2 years or more............

[crosswire]

Excellent ideas.

In addition, we need to cut imports wherever we can. Go back to that time when we did without. Make everyone reallize how serious the situation is and then maybe we will start producing more on our own. Thus we would also import less, especially oil.
.... Imagine this, we cut the oil imports for domestic electricity, nothing more than what is necessary for say 3 florescent lights, fridge, television, etc, and it is limited to about 80 kWhr max per month per small household. Those who need to use more electricity say 'ok', they can start a ethane farm. More people get in on the idea by force. Get some youths of the street. Get some wasted land to be used. Farm vegetation required and then ship it to the ethane production site. Sell that back. I would not be surprised if some serious money was involved. (That makes me want to start such a small farm business, but I need land, I can sort out the labour with help.)

The train system can be revived. It might take some serious money but it would be beneficial in the long run. We can say that the system is dead and unrevivable and yet some white man will come and revive it again then sell train tickets as high as marketable. I think that there is some legal issue with having a train system competing with the highway but an agreement between both systems is possible.

I would also like to see more Jamaican food products on the shelf as well, buts that a slighlty different topic

[Utech22]

1 - Windmill
2 - Solar electricity - we are in the tropics

I wanted to email Bruce at jamaicahouselive@gmail.com, these along with some other suggestion for the country, but joke it out everytime.

[leoandru]

well not sure if you guys follow the news, but the goverment has started a program where they mix ethanol with fuel at the pumps.. Plus there is this.

Alternative energy is good but Im more for geothermal power plants rather than solar and wind power where the energy output of the former is very unpredictable. Iceland is fossil fuel independent the majority of their power is generated by geothermal energy and hydro electric dams, they produce hydrogen which they use as car fuel. I'd like to see Jamaica move in that direction.

[kirkcaldyj]

I agree with "Crosswire" Solar to power homes.

Listen, we are blessed in this country with the sun and clean water, what we need to do as a nation is wake up and realise this.

In My opinion Think about
1. Solar to power the home (Only with a Generator Backup),
2. Solar Water Heaters.
3. Above Ground Water tanks

I feel that these solutions should be mandetory for any new property that is being built.

To combat this we would also need to have the recycling stations for the Lead and Acid of the Deep Cycle Batteries and to recycle the Solar Panels themselfs.

Definatley when I purchase a home I will work hard to have the house powered thru Solar. I just had a *T$(& with the poweer company.

My Half month Bill is equal to my usual Full Month Bill.......it crazy seriously and Solar is Free (After the initial expense of capital outlay) but i have heard that NHT is providing loans for Solar Systems? is this tru?

[crosswire]

Well anything and everything that works would be good for JA at this time of crisis. The important thing is that we address our problems, and stop bleeding away the countries future.

@Leo, I didn't know those bits of info. Iceland is a wonderful example of geothermal energy. It is definitely as important as solar, and perhaps more. Natural gas exploration also warrants close attention.

Let me clarify, this is discussion i.e. the floor is opened to all point of views. I am also opened to all possible solutions and not pro any solution as yet. We are seeking all the facts and even still, one solution will still be monitored through its development, because we cannot predict accurately how it will impact our crisis... Later we can debate about which solution JA should pursue based on: initial cost, time of developement, profit and risk, at which time I will state my stance.

Right now, increased ethanol production is a quick patch for this crisis of high oil prices. I do not see its initial cost being as high as the other alternatives, nor the time of developement. Plus this is something that can grow more gradually by small additions of land, labour and machinery.

Someone mentioned an efficient transport system, and I thought about it and agreed however this cannot be achieved right now. This would put alot of people out of a job. I do not know about kingston but this would be so in Mobay. I am not prepared to have a sudden uprising in crime. Lets avoid that now and in the future. First we should establish alternative jobs, eg driving a tractor or forklit on an ethanol farm rather than taxi. Large bus is the way to go on mainstream routes with regular 10 minutes interval or so (it does not have to be packed). Also fix roads so that a bus wont break down on route.(bus scheduling and route should be based on statistical load, eg at 4:00 pm more people are expected at point A so reserved buses would be added to that route A and at 5:00 less people or on A but more is on B so bus tranfers fron A to B.

Carpooling is a sensible approach but has the problem of 1) people do not mix well with each other as we think 2) some destination are unique, eg from A to C to F and another A to B to E. It would good if the transport system and traffic is so efficient that it competes with actually owning a vehicle, then we would see more car pooling

solar and wind power where the energy output of the former is very unpredictable

I disaggree with the use of very. Climate for jamaica has it degree of expectatitions, on average, we expect sun in the day and none in the night. Even 3 day - tropical depressions and cloudy weather will happen time to time. The problem is to have battery back up or ethonal running generators. More research is needed for battery sources in that regard. A big plastic rhino tank with the right electrolyte (non toxic) could also be used as a battery per household. Lead acid is just a short term solution that could develope into a long term one based on how efficient recycling it becomes.

If we had a solar panel factory, it would definitely be promising. However, the initial cost is very high. I will try to get details somehow.

• Raw materials used, and amount of energy needed.
• Equipment
• Manufacturing steps
• Repair/Refurbishing
• Recycling steps for metals, etc.

It is possible that we could have other exports or products from this, but anyway figures first.

If anyone gets more info on what the government is doing with the ethanol project please post here.

[Mixmasterxp]

I love this solar panel factory idea but how do we even get all these ideas out there and for them to take it seriously?

Any of u know J-wray and nephew? they sold out the factories, appleton and another one... this new company is planning to scratch sugar production and start on ethanol production meaning importing more sugar.

also... human rights is destroying this country... prisoners should be placed on farms or some projects benificial to the country instead of having them sit and eat our tax money.


@kirkcaldyj - mandetory solar panels cant work right now... the price (at the present time) for them outweighs the monthly bills on oil power for a couple years well. In todays society, no poor or middle class man going to build a house and drop on solar stuff just because its environmental friendly, he has to see how it will benefit him monetarily. Government cant do that, u know how much people a go riot if them hear they gonna have to spend a mandatory $200k+ more to build a house.

[leoandru]

I like this, saw it in a BBC documentary about the sun a few days ago Found an extract on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTQ4cFn5sXs, though it takes a lot of real estate to build such a power plant the power output is very good. In the extract they mentioned that a deployment of 20,000 dishes which takes up 5 square miles will power the city of Sandiego. Sandiego has a population of about 1.2 million.

I disaggree with the use of very. Climate for jamaica has it degree of expectatitions, on average, we expect sun in the day and none in the night. Even 3 day - tropical depressions and cloudy weather will happen time to time. The problem is to have battery back up or ethonal running generators.

I disagree again, while we have a fair amount of sunshine you have to factor cloud cover into the output of a solar power plant. Jamaica is a tropical island which means we get a lot of cloud cover, if you search the internet you'll find that most solar power projects are deployed in dry arid regions with very little cloud cover, like above in the desert.

While I wont dismiss solar power as an alternative to fossil fuels, I wont go as far as saying its the best solution for Jamaica, I would invest more time and money into investigating other alternatives that will output more power per dollar.

As for the video, I would buy one of those dishes and mount it in my yard and probably resell the extra power to JPS, I could see a few thousand other people thinking the same way. I think that would be the best strategy towards solar power.

[crosswire]

if you search the internet you'll find that most solar power projects are deployed in dry arid regions with very little cloud cover, like above in the desert.

Believe me when I said that I had that idea long before it was developed. Anyway...

Jamaica has sunlight close to those regions.

Explanation 1
Look at a satellite pic
http://www.die.net/earth/?zoom=2
Notice that the equator has a thin belt of clouds. Above and below this belt is clear skies. Jamaica lies near the border of 'the clear skies' and the 'equator belt of clouds'. In the center of the clear sky belt, deserts are found. They are found a bit more north than Jamaica which makes their summer even more hotter than Jamaica because the northern hemisphere faces the sun in summer. In the winter, the southern hemisphere faces the sun. Jamaica gets a bit more clouds and that alone lowers the average sunlight. Desert temperatures are by fact greater than that of jamaica, indicating more sunlight, and less cloud cover. I am not desputing that. It is that more rainfall occurs in JA, mainly in April that seprates it from desert but not to far.

Explanation 2
The global solar map has Jamaica at about 5 peak sun hours (See definition underlined below)
http://www.solar4power.com/map3-global-solar-power.html
Compared to desert regions with 6.5 and 7
http://www.solar4power.com/map9-global-solar-power.html

Jamaica's solar power potential is not that far below that of dessert areas, at least it is not half .

Peak Sun-Hour

http://www.homepower.com/article/?file=HP121_pg14_ATE_2

A peak sun-hour is roughly the amount of solar energy striking a 1-square-meter area perpendicular to the sun’s location over a 1-hour period straddling solar noon in the summertime. So we can compare apples to apples, the amount of power is standardized at 1,000 watts (1 kilowatt) hitting that 1-square meter surface. By adding up the various amounts of solar irradiation over the course of a day, and counting them as units equivalent to 1 solar-noon midsummer hour (1,000 watts per square meter for 1 hour), we get a useful comparison number—the peak sun-hour.

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclo...sun_hours.html

The equivalent number of hours per day when solar irradiance averages 1 kW/m2. For example, six peak sun hours means that the energy received during total daylight hours equals the energy that would have been received had the irradiance for six hours been 1 kW/m2.

There may be some achievements in solar energy that can boost its efficiency. We will have to wait and see. Though this manufacturer has it locked and patented
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/...story?id=53209

Day4 Energy Inc. announced that its R&D program, after months of research and experimental trials, has developed a design and manufacturing process for its Generation II solar cells with efficiency up to 19 percent on mono-crystalline and 18 percent on multi-crystalline silicon materials. According to the company, the new design constitutes a significant improvement not only in maximum efficiency of the product, but also in low cost manufacturing and lower commercialization risk.

http://www.day4energy.com/Day4Energy...exicoIndia.htm

The Day4 Electrode is an advanced solar module technology that directly replaces the conventional soldering methods that are widely used throughout today's solar industry. By improving connections to and between photovoltaic (PV) cells, the Day4 Electrode delivers quality solar electric products with higher performance, longer lifetime, improved aesthetics and lower cost. The Day4 Electrode further enables design and commercial production of next generation PV cell technologies that are not compatible with the conventional solder based approach to PV module manufacturing. Day4 Energy is seeking patent protection for this and other related technologies in a number of additional countries worldwide.

An 80W solar panel costs about $400 US
http://www.solar4power.com/store/010...ls-sunwize.htm
http://www.solar4power.com/store/010-040-bp.htm
http://www.solar4power.com/store/010...rpanels-GE.htm
http://www.solar4power.com/store/010...nels-shell.htm
A 165W cost about $800

For 5 peak hours per day on a 80W module, (5x80=400)W/hr= 0.4 KiloWatt hr per day, this gives (0.4x28)=11.2 KWH per month
10 panels would cost $4000 US and provide about 100KWH per month. This would be about 100 months of paying $40 US each month. Just 10 years
This is the ideal case with ethane generators as back up, and all appliances are DC based. Consider that PC and flat screens use DC at its core. A day-business would be glad for this setup if it had low-powered pcs. OK I am exaggerating, but ethane now and then solar power later has much potential as geothermal which seems to can excessively power JA.








Regarding my reseach on the energy needed to manufacture solar panels
http://jupiter.clarion.edu/~jpearce/.../netenergy.pdf

Clearly the modern photovoltaic cells based on silicon
technologies including c-Si, p-Si, and a-Si all pay for
themselves in terms of energy in a few years (1-5 years). They
thus generate enough energy over their lifetimes to reproduce
themselves many times (6-31 reproductions) depending on
what type of material, BOS, and location. It was found that
regardless of material, BIPV is a superior ecological choice to
centralized PV plants. Finally, the results in this paper indicate
that efficiency plays a secondary role to embodied energy in
the overall net energy production of modern solar cells.

Wiki Article: http://www.appropedia.org/Category:Photovoltaics