Business View Caribbean
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Business View Caribbean - September 2015 5
able through wind, solar, biomass, and waste energy,
but the key to it is reducing consumption to make
those technologies viable and affordable, quickly.” He
explains how the savings on energy are possible: “Ja-
pan, following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, shut
down all their nuclear electricity generating plants
and went back to oil and coal. The cost of energy went
through the roof. So, the government said ‘We’ve got
to do something.’ So they came up with a plan – they
installed 73 million LED lights. They saved $8.4 bil-
lion USD in two years by doing that. So that’s a model
that can be easily replicated across the Caribbean and
the quickest way to reduce your energy consumption is
through lighting.”
Will Reid’s goals meet with success? “It’s not a tough
sell; people buy into it conceptually,” he explains. “The
issue is, most of the governments in the Caribbean
are broke; they’re financially stressed. The payback
period is fairly short, but it’s just getting that initial in-
vestment. So we’re working with some finance houses
