INTERVIEW: SOLAR BUZZ JAMAICA
JAMAICAN
SOLAR
REVOLUTION Sustainable Business Magazine speaks with Jason Robinson, CEO of Solar Buzz Jamaica, about resilient, cost-effective energy generation in Jamaica. “We’re still seeing a lot of commercial buildings in Jamaica are built with roofs that can’t handle solar just to save some money,” says Jason Robinson, CEO of Solar Buzz Jamaica. “In this day and age, on an island state located in a hurricane zone, that’s unacceptable. But it’s not going to change until the government adopts better green building codes.” Solar Buzz Jamaica are renewables and energy efficiency specialists, offering design and installation of solar systems as well as other energy-conservation technologies like efficient pool pumps and glass coatings. The company started out in 2011, after Mr. Robinson returned to his home country from Los Angeles with burgeoning experience in the renewables sector. He was motivated by what he felt was the Jamaica’s broken energy system. “At that time people were paying 45 cents or more per kilowatt hour (kWh) at their homes, and businesses were paying in the region of 30 cents,” says Mr. Robinson. “As a result, businesses were closing down because they couldn’t even afford their electricity bill. The power utility in the country was – and still is – a monopoly.” 44 | SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE
SPREADING THE WORD It took some time before Solar Buzz Jamaica could even get involved in solar energy. “What we found back then was that financing simply wasn’t available for solar installations,” says Mr. Robinson. “Banks weren’t interested. We had to pivot and instead focused on energy audits and monitoring. I had the exclusive rights to an energy monitor called OWL, so I was putting that in people’s homes and businesses, teaching them how to conserve through energy monitoring. Then the company started adding energy efficiency products to our range in order to further help our clients.” “Around 2014, the Development Bank of Jamaica finally put financing in place that was accessible for normal businesses,” says Mr. Robinson. “Before that, the terms were too short and the interest rates too high. At the end of 2014, the bank extended the Energy Loan to a 10-year term at around 8%. That allowed monthly payments on the loan to be less than what JPS, the country’s energy utility, wanted. That meant we finally saw an uptake in solar.” Today, Solar Buzz Jamaica’s business is split approximately 70/30 between com-
