Prime Minister Freundel Stuart made this announcement while addressing the official opening of the Barbados National Oil Company Limited’s (BNOCL) Green Maintenance Facility where he said that government was in the process of preparing the necessary documentation to apply for a US$25 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank to fund the programme.

Noting that government’s electricity bill was over BDS$60 million (US$30 million), Stuart said the savings from the programme would “release resources either for saving, or for meeting some of the other critical social needs, such as providing nursery school education for our three-to five-year-old children in our nation”.

“This programme by government also represents a business opportunity for the BNOCL both to partner with others who bring skills, technology and financial resources to a joint venture arrangement and to provide services in the areas of energy efficiency, retrofit and solar power generation from government buildings,” he added.

In commending the oil company for setting-up such a facility, Stuart also urged other maintenance facilities in the government sector, or those who do major work for government, to emulate the BNOCL’s  green maintenance workshop initiative.

“The government’s push for retrofitting of the country’s buildings and the generation of electricity from renewable sources of energy, will also see the emergence of an industry of skilled persons, to execute the energy efficiency retrofits and maintenance thereof, and for persons to execute the projects for the generation of electricity from renewable energy sources and the maintenance of such systems,” he said