Description

The Bahamas scored 0.53 to rank 52nd out of the 55 Climatescope 2014 nations, above only Suriname, Haiti and Tajikistan.

Among the 26 Latin American and the Caribbean countries, it finished 24th.

The country is highly dependent on oil and diesel generation and does not have any clean energy policies or initiatives, despite the incentive of high electricity prices (the average was $0.38/kWh in 2013). Nonetheless, solar water heaters are gaining ground as a means of reducing electricity bills.

The Bahamas is an archipelago of 20 islands. New Providence is the most populous, being home to 70% of the country’s 0.4m people. Close to 100% of the population has access to electricity, which is supplied by a grid with 370MW of capacity. The largest island, Andros, is upgrading its generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure to meet increasing power demand.

State-owned utility Bahamas Electricity Company supplies energy to the major islands with the exception of Grand Bahama, which is supplied by a private company. The lack of a net metering policy is a dampener on new investment in distributed clean energy.