Renewable energy to strengthen Irrigation Commission’s service to farmers

Minister of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, Hon Audley Shaw, says Government is moving to use renewable energy to strengthen the National Irrigation Commission’s (NIC) capacity to better serve farmers and spur growth in the agricultural sector.
“The application of renewable energy throughout the sector is part of the deliberate strategy being employed by the Government to boost production and productivity. We want to modernise the sector and outfit it with requirements to increase production and productivity efficiency,” he said.
The Agriculture Minister said that energy use in agriculture and irrigation is high, with electricity costs accounting for 35 per cent of the NIC’s annual budget, owing to the agency’s reliance on non-renewable energy.
Minister Shaw was speaking at a ceremony to commission into service an NIC solar-powered system at the Bengal Pump Station in Trelawny on January 23, 2020, which will result in a reduction of the annual energy cost at the facility by $3 million.
The station is the first pump facility operated by the NIC to be retrofitted with a large-scale solar-energy photovoltaic system valued at $37.77 million. Included in the retrofit was the installation of a 90-kilowatt grid-tied solar photovoltaic system to self-generate 75 per cent of the energy requirement of the pump station.
The agriculture minister said that the use of this renewable energy facility will help to reduce the energy cost to the Government as well as lessen the NIC’s footprint by 110 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions annually.
For his part, Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, Hon. J.C. Hutchinson, said the retrofitted Bengal Pump Station will help to boost productivity in the sector and enable rural development.
“With this commissioning of the improved facility, we will see even more bountiful supplies of vegetables being produced, not only for the hotel industry but also for the domestic and export markets, said Minister Hutchinson.
The NIC intends to replicate the solar energy project at five of its offices and pump stations across the island by March 2020.