Think tanks encourage Caribbean to move away from fuel oil
High imported diesel prices make renewable energy competitive in the Caribbean
For decades, Caribbean nations have spent large sums of valuable hard currency on diesel, imported for power generation. Renewable energy projects could change this. Electricity generated from high-sulfur fuel oil is both polluting and expensive. The average cost of electricity across the Caribbean ranges from $0.30 per kilowatt hour (KWh) to $0.65/KWh - roughly three to six times the price paid in the continental US. Prices as high as this hurt the region's economic competitiveness. Businessman Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin Group and a Caribbean resident, plans to change that. Working with two think tanks, the Carbon War Room, which he helped found, and US-based Rocky Mountain Institu
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