The Renewable Energy Industry in CARIFORUM Countries

COUNTRY INDICATOR ANALYSIS

4.3 | CLASSIFICATION OF RE COMPANIES 4.3.1 | RE COMPANY CAPABILITY

The conversation on RE has outstripped the reality on the ground for all countries in this study. The numbers and types of RE companies who practice the use of RE and EE technologies tend to be less than the companies registered in most cases. In some cases, the function of the registered firm is replaced by individuals whomeet a prescribed qualification in the specific country. E.g. Antigua and Barbuda. Regionally, the professional certifications include the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP), and the Caribbean Energy Manager (CEM). These certifications offer the public some degree of protection and assurance that practitioners have passed an examination which is based on acceptable minimum standards when performing tasks. It provides a way to distinguish practitioners from their competition and improve quality and public perception. In some case, installations must be done by an authorized installer in order to gain permission to connect to the national grid. One-time Training The NABCEP PV Installation Professional Certification process follows professional credentialing guidelines. Between 2015 and 2016, the IDB Bridge programs trained 72 persons across Barbados, Trinidad and Jamaica using NABCEP guidelines. Over 90% of the participants took the exam and were successful. In 2018, CDB and USAID sponsored the CEM in Barbados for about 10 of the countries in this study. Between 25 and 30 persons attended the course and 16 persons completed the CEM successfully On-going Training The training institutions identified in Section 3.0 provide their courses every year. However, most of them do not provide the depth and level of practical training that is necessary to deploy RE systems across the region. These courses therefore require extensive on-the-job training. This is a major weakness in some HEI who need to enhance their offering to meet market needs. Resources There are around 150 registered RECs across the 15 countries in this study. Additionally, the staff complement for RECs is also generally low. On average RECs are about 12 years old and have an average staff complement of 12. This represents a lack of capacity nationally. Small RECs will be able to do residential installations if supported by policy but lack the capacity to execute larger commercial or utility-scale projects. In the latter segment of the market, RECs can at best function as sub-contractors. The level of collaboration reported amongst RECs also site their inability to come together to execute larger projects. Dominican Republic and Barbados have the larger staff compliment due to their market size and the SWH industry. Only three countries have private sector-based institutions which focus solely on RE and EE, those being Barbados, Jamaica and Dominican Republic. If these types of associations can be proliferated across the region, RECs may be able to combine their resources under an umbrella organization to become more

141

The Renewable Energy Industry in CARIFORUM Countries