The small Caribbean island, devastated by a recent hurricane, has decided to make the best of this tragedy to seize the moment and invest decisively in renewable energies and in a new economic model that privileges recycling and the proper use of its waste.
Jamaica’s gamble is not easy, but thanks to the leadership of many people, it is possible to achieve.
“If life gives you lemons, make lemonade”
By: Gabriel E. Levy B.
The installation of rooftop solar energy has increased significantly in Jamaica over the last decade, from less than 1.4 megawatts in 2015 to about 65 megawatts in 2023, a considerable figure for a small island, according to specialists. Together, solar and other renewable sources contributed approximately 10% of the country’s electricity generation in 2023.
The expectation is that this growth will contribute to reducing Jamaica’s dependence on imported oil and liquefied natural gas, which arrive on the island in tankers, in a context in which ports, refineries, power plants and transmission networks are becoming increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather events intensified by global warming.
Large areas of the territory remain without power after Hurricane Melissa last week, which hit Jamaica as a Category 5 storm, leaving at least 32 people dead and an untold number of buildings and homes destroyed. “We’re talking about rebuilding a very extensive, complex and expensive infrastructure,” said David Gumbs, a Caribbean energy specialist at the Rocky Mountain Institute and former CEO of the Anguilla Electricity Company.
“With solar energy, you retain some ability to continue producing electricity” without relying on hundreds of miles of damaged power lines, he said. “And in the Caribbean context, when a hurricane passes, if I have solar panels on the roof and batteries and I can keep my refrigerator running, the whole neighborhood benefits.”
The New York Times Discusses the Case of Jamaica
A recent article in The New York Times has taken up several cases of technological change in Jamaica and brought them together in a recent publication.
Solar panels must withstand intense winds, of course. Jason Robinson, who runs Solar Buzz, an installation company based in the Jamaican capital Kingston, has spent the past week assessing damage, scouring roads in the west of the island covered with trees and downed power lines. “With gusts close to 322 kilometers per hour, you are at the mercy of the universe,” Robinson said.
So far, none of its nearly 300 customers have been seriously affected. In particular, the panels mounted flat on the ceilings have held up well. Some owners of rooftop solar systems removed the panels before the arrival of the strongest winds. Many had already resumed operations.
“As long as the installation is compliant and the roof remains in place, there is the potential to withstand very long blackouts,” Robinson explained. “Resilience is becoming even more important than savings on electricity bills.”
Solar systems are still inaccessible to many Jamaicans, but costs are falling rapidly with the massive inflow of equipment from China.
In recent years, the Jamaican government has begun to provide tax incentives for solar energy, and banks have expanded financing options.
The country’s power utility also now compensates households with solar systems for the surplus electricity they feed into the grid.
All of this is helping Jamaica move towards its goal of producing 50% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030.
Cases of circular economy, which were born from the mud
In Kingston, the capital of the island of Jamaica, a local cooperative of informal waste pickers formalized their work after the hurricane.
They collected a lot of destroyed plastic and aluminum from damaged neighborhoods and sold them to local middlemen.
The income was not high, but it allowed dozens of families to sustain themselves for weeks. In Montego Bay, wind-stricken hotels separated reconstruction waste and donated reusable materials to nearby communities.
This practice reduced costs and accelerated repairs, although not all tourism actors joined in.
Another case arose in rural areas, where organic waste from fallen trees was transformed into compost for local agriculture.
Small producers used this material to recover eroded soils.
The initiative had university technical support and showed that not all waste needed to leave the territory. There were also failures.
In St. Thomas, a collection center collapsed due to lack of transportation and planning, and the separated waste ended up mixed again. That experience made it clear that resilience was not improvised.
Schools played an unexpected role. Some incorporated workshops on waste separation as part of the return to school. The children took the message home, with uneven but visible results. It was not classic environmental education, it was learning from experience, from what has been lived. In those improvised classrooms, another word appeared in the middle of simple phrases, Necessary Collective Response.
In conclusion, although the weather has been inclement with Jamaica, a small island in the Caribbean, the organized work of its communities has allowed hopes to emerge in the midst of the tragedy in green energy and recycling, models that will allow them to be less dependent on the resources that come from the mainland and in this way they will be able to achieve greater energy and economic autonomy for the benefit of the surrounding communities.
