Black Immigrant Daily News
Two companies are partnering to go greener and make a five-megawatt solar photovoltaic farm a reality.
Mount Gay Distilleries Ltd is collaborating with Williams Industries Ltd to establish a $12 million solar farm on 16 acres of land at the company’s location in St Lucy. This initiative will not only reduce the distillery’s carbon footprint but will also fall in line with Barbados’ national goal of achieving 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030.
Speaking to the media on Wednesday, July 31, Managing Director of Mount Gay Distilleries Rapha?l Grisoni explained how the project aligned with the company’s sustainability strategy.
“Sustainability is at the heart of what we do we are looking for the best partner and looking at the ambition of Barbados being 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030, we thought it was a good move. And, of course, Williams [Industries] is the best partner because they have a track record of solar farms on the island and they are using the best technology,” added Grisoni, indicating that the project was awarded based on the tendering process.
While unable to provide a definitive start, he indicated that assessments had been undertaken and the project was “in the last stages” of approval.
Executive Director at Williams Industries David Staples indicated that once the “final permissions” were given from R?my-Cointreau, Mount Gay’s parent company, the project would commence.
“We are very proud of one of our larger international businesses here to take this step for the carbon offset and for the contribution to the local economy and we think it is a win-win-win – from the Government and citizenry point of view, from his [Grisoni’s] company, and Williams Caribbean Capital,” he said.
Staples went on to point out that the huge initiative would be all locally financed, stating: “It is local ownership. It will be owned by Mount Gay and ourselves.”
Grisoni explained that the investment in the solar farm investment was part of the distillery’s sustainability strategy.
“That fits in perfectly with our sustainability strategy. For many years we were reducing our carbon footprint. Over the last four years, we reduced our carbon footprint by 66 per cent by switching, for example, our main source of energy to natural gas that helped us to reduce our usage of diesel. As you know natural gas is a cleaner energy and the carbon footprint of natural gas is quite low.”
He indicated that Mount Gay continued to play its part with smaller initiatives like planting trees and switching to electric cars as the company tried to offset its usage and reduce its carbon footprint.
“The solar farm is really a big milestone for us in our sustainability strategy. It is not something unknown for us. It is planned and it is part of our strategy. We are happy to have this partnership that, at the end of the day, will be beneficial to everybody,” Grisoni stated.
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