St. Maarten Private Eye

Hi sxmstudent,

Regarding solar panels. The biggest roadblock to solar energy taking off here is that GEBE do not offer householders the opportunity to connect to the grid and sell their surplus. If this were possible it would remove the need for banks of batteries as there would be little or no power storage required. The home would draw what it needed with the surplus going into the grid during the day when many people are out at work, at night they would be drawing from the grid.

Batteries, if required, can also be recycled and reconditioned, if GEBE took this project by the horns and seriously, then such a program would have to be part of it. Most US states and many European countries offer this opportunity and I think the power losses and conversion problems you note are easily solvable with the right equipment.

I agree with you fully, if the government doesn't care then why should the people. Our biggest problem is that the government doesn't seem to care about many things. The reason we have the bus and taxi system we have now is because of weakness and poor leadership, too afraid to take the bull by the horns.

Hady