The Worldwatch Institute in its recently published “Jamaica Sustainable Energy Roadmap– Pathways to an Affordable, Reliable, Low-Emission Electricity System” revealed that Jamaica has a tremendous solar potential with global horizontal irradiance (or GHI) ranging from 5 to 7 kWh per square meter per day (kWh/m2/day) throughout most of the country. According to the Institute some parts of Jamaica have an even higher GHI, reaching up to 8 kWh/m2/day. To put things in perspective, Germany, which has nearly half of the world’s installed solar PV capacity, has very few locations with a GHI above 3.5 kWh/m2/day.

Resource assessment carried out at seven zones: St. Ann’s Bay Hospital, Montego Bay convention center, the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica building, the Soapberry wastewater treatment plant, the Scientific Research Council building, the Trade Winds Citrus company site, and Wigton Windfarm to demonstrate the potential for decentralized solar PV systems at the sites. The results are shown below.

As seen in the above chart the…