Above: solar panels

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The government of Japan has provided $121,000 in grant financing to Barbados to outfit five primary schools with photovoltaic energy.

Japan’s Ambassador to Barbados, Yoshimasa Tezuka, said the project would “allow students to see the value of renewable energy as a basic human need.”

“Efforts to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels is [an initiative] that government is seriously pursuing and we feel the best way to do that is to lead by example,” Barbados Foreign Minister Maxine McClean following a meeting with Tezuka. “We certainly appreciate the initiative to assist us in that direction.”

Barbados has been making a push on green energy in recent years, highlighted by the construction of a waste-to-energy plant at the Mangrove Pond Landfill.

Japan and Barbados have had diplomatic relations since August 1967.