Above: a technician installs a solar LED panel in Clarendon (JIS Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

A new pilot project in Jamaica will help light a number of new street lamps in the country through solar power.

The project will begin in three parishes in Jamaica over the next six months. The first set of solar-powered LED fixtures was installed Tuesday in Osbourne Store in Clarendon.

The initiative is being jointly implemented by the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development and US-based tech and engineering firm Green Energy RG.

It seeks to reduce the budget to maintain the nearly 93,000 street lights in Jamaica, which cost roughly $21.7 million USD each year to power.

The pilot phase will begin with 5,000 LED lights installed in Clarendon, as well as sections in St Catherine, Kingston and St Andrew.

It will also retrofit the Ministry’s Kingston offices with energy-saving solutions.

“We are very excited about this technology,” said Alfred Hyre, managing director of Green RG. “It’s proven technology that I think is going to do everything and more than everyone expects it to do.”

The programme follows the introduction of a similar drive in St Kitts.