How This Caribbean Country is Providing Energy for Remote Communities

Above: a home fitted with a solar system in Guyana

By the Caribbean Journal staff

While Guyana has a population of around 740,000 people, it’s also one of the least densely populated places in the wider region.

That means there are large swathes of territory for which providing electricity is rather difficult.

In order to solve that problem, the country has been steadily working to ramp up the development of renewable energy across its so-called “hinterlands.”

The country’s solar programme is continuing this year, with the further distribution of 6,000 65-watt photovoltaic systems for households in select hinterland and coastal river-area communities.

The project, which provides at least enough power to light individual homes, is exclusively focusing on Amerindian communities in the country.

It has been implemented in more than 11,000 households in Guyana, according to government data.

Guyana’s government says the project is being conducted by a group of the residents of the hinterlands that has been trained to do so.

“The project is aimed at providing a basic solar powered system to all homes in Amerindian communities,” according to Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon. “The project will see the systems being shared evenly between Hinterland and Coastal riverain communities.”

The project, called the Hinterland Electrification programme, first launched in 2005.