Momentum

Things are beginning to move in an encouraging direction. Contact has been made with some really big Foundations and international financial institutions who are interested in the direction we are heading in. So far, what I am finding most fascinating is how for the second time (the last time being my work facilitating the creation of the Four Seasons Resort Eco-Resort plan in Grenada) I am seeing how important it is to have someone playing the role I am playing now to bring the technocrats together with the business minds and the people decisions affect.

What it boils down to is (needing) a relatively neutral third party who works with all the stakeholders guided by a very simple mandate:

"HOW DO WE SOLVE THIS PROBLEM SO EVERYONE WINS?
HOW DO WE TURN THIS PROBLEM INTO AN OPPORTUNITY?"

It takes a lot of listening, and a very interdisciplinary intellectual foundation to be able to hear widely varied viewpoints (technical, emotional, financial) and find the win-zone among them. I have not spent enough time thinking about my role in all of this to the point where I've developed a label for it. Maybe some of my readers have some thoughts about it?

*****

I met with the local utility (and parent company) executives this week and began negotiating our renewable energy plans with them directly. The meetings revealed a few things:

1. There are an enormous amount of technical considerations that have to be worked into the project design not to mention negotiating agreement upon. This is going to slow down the grant procurement process for renewables a bit - but not terminally so.
2. We're at the mercy of Grenlec because of the monopoly law, and their investments in renewable energy are going to deepen that monopoly. They provide good service and they are committed to a 100% renewable future for Grenada - that's not the problem. The problem is how difficult it is to negotiate with a party that really holds all the power. We didn't get anywhere on negotiating better prices but we did open discussion about a 1.5-2 MW solar/wind farm. We want to own the solars, but they want to give us a 5 year term for it, after which they would own the solars. On matters like that - what choice do we have without legislated change?
3. The company refreshingly interested in renewable energy - and that's a good thing.
4. I will need to develop the energy audit and retrofit project component as soon as possible because the energy generation component is going to take awhile.

There was also some discussion about the utility's investment in geothermal energy.

Ohhhh my wheels are spinning with ideas!

Since our meeting I have been formulating ideas about setting up a community fund that could invest in the geothermal plant so that revenues stemming from it could be invested back into the country's development. GRENLEC would rather pay back into the community than to a bank or global investor - and we'd naturally prefer it too! The thought really excites me.

What if I could raise the money locally and have those community partners invest in the drilling exploration for the geothermal plant? It comes with risks, but the technocrats I have spoken to seem to be very confident about it, citing the presence of our volcano's Kick 'em Jenny and Kick 'em Jack and the similar geological features in Dominica have yielded good results (GRENELC is also in this country).

As business models go - many governments around the world privatized their utilities and by doing so it may have improved on the core efficiencies of the companies, but it disconnected the end-user from the benefits derived from the utilities profits. What if that bridge could be crossed again so that the venture capital used to develop a new (renewable) energy resource didn't come from the global marketplace (there-by exposing Grenada to capital flight later on) but from local sources instead? It would be so much better for all involved......

Grenada is also a country that has oil - could we make a case to one of the climate change funding mechanisms to pay Grenada to leave the oil the ground where it belongs if we successfully develop geothermal energy???? THAT would be revolutionary! I know pundits would cringe at the thought of giving up a license to print money......but it brings me to an old Cree proverb...

"After the last tree has been cut and the last fish has been caught - only then will you realize that money cannot be eaten".

But then as life always finds ways to twist the best common sense into something more complicated I realize that while I possess this kind of thinking on the one hand I also realize that I can do this - I can find ways to make this happen (or a version of it anyway) but I need more financial resources to back up my efforts...so we're back to money again! **sigh**