Michael Gordon
Science, Commerce and Technology Minister Phillip
Paulwell (centre) explains the difference between the energy-saving
bulb and the incandescent bulb at a press briefing at his office
in New Kingston Tuesday. To the minister's left is Cuban Ambassador
Gisella Garcia Rivera, while JPS President and CEO Charles Mathews
looks on.
Paul Clarke
Jamaica Observer
Kingston
Petroleumworld.com
02 19 06
Science, Commerce and Technology Minister Phillip Paulwell (centre)
explains the difference between the energy-saving bulb and the
incandescent bulb at a press briefing at his office in New Kingston
Tuesday. To the minister's left is Cuban Ambassador Gisella
Garcia Rivera, while JPS President and CEO Charles Mathews looks
on. (Photo: Michael Gordon)
HUNDREDS
of householders in East Kingston and Port Royal should, after
tomorrow, begin seeing a reduction in their electricity bills.
The
Cuban government has given Jamaica 30,000 energy-saving bulbs
that are expected to cut costs to consumers as well as reduce
the country's high energy bill.
The
energy-savers can last up to 10,000 hours, and are said to be
cooler than incandescent bulbs.
Distribution
will begin tomorrow and willcontinue into next week.
Thirty
Cubans have been deployed to the island to distribute the bulbs.
They will also collect incandescent bulbs from residents and
destroy them.
Commerce,
Science and Technology minister Phillip Paulwell said the donations
were part of an energy conservation pilot project that would
target his constituency, and eventually be extended to the rest
of Jamaica.
The
minister was speaking Tuesday at a press conference at the Petroleum
Corporation Office in New Kingston.
He
told reporters that the joint venture between the governments
of Jamaica and Cuba would advance conservation efforts and reduce
Jamaica's high energy bill.
Paulwell noted that Jamaica's oil bill was more than US$1.2
billion for this fiscal year, a figure almost equal to net earnings
from the tourism and bauxite sectors combined.
But
on Tuesday, during the launch of Jamaica's energy conservation
drive, Cuban Ambassador Gisela Garcia Rivera told reporters
that Cuba had managed to save approximately 100 megawatts of
power and changed out more than seven million bulbs under a
similar conservation programme.
Paulwell,
meanwhile, agreed that similar results could be achieved in
Jamaica once the energy-saving bulbs were in use.
The
shipment of bulbs arrived in the island on Monday.
