May 13 - GSD Say Solar Panel Project Never Went Out To Tender
The GSD says the Minister for the Environment has admitted that the Government's Solar Panel installation did not undergo a tender process.
A statement form the GSD follows below:
It appears that the Minister for the Environment has suffered a fit of pique over the comments made by GSD Environment spokesman Trevor Hammond, challenging his progress in delivering renewable energy projects and the manner in which the New Harbours projects was dished out to a GSLP party member. The Minister, in what must have been a slip of the tongue, goes so far as to admit that the solar panel project at New Harbours was awarded without a proper commercial tender process. The tax payer would be entitled to ask how much did the Government pay for the installation.
Trevor Hammond said: “We of course encourage Government to continue to develop the provision of energy from renewable sources and have suggested to Dr Cortes that we meet as a matter of urgency to jointly plan our communities road map towards those challenging targets set in the unanimously agreed Parliamentary motion on the global climate emergency.
“In doing so it is important that we are realistic about where we are in terms of progress. Some of the Ministers claims regarding the amount of energy produced by the New Harbours project don’t stand up to scrutiny. It is clear that he has taken the opportunity to apply the style of smoke and mirrors mathematics that the Government normally reserve for their budget. He speaks both of 345 homes being powered from renewables on a particular day and of “approximately” 2% of our power being derived from renewables at peak times. Both of course are best case scenarios and do not mean that on average, 2% of our power is derived from renewable sources or that powering 345 homes for a day is 2% of our overall power need as this disregards the power requirements of business and industry and of course, with the pace of development, those needs are growing. We remain far from the 20% target set for next year.
“Dr Cortes also states, in a rather bizarre moment, that because he is a lizard expert he knows more than most about solar panels! I am not clear why that should be, but very much look forward to discussing solar panels and other sources of renewable energy, as well as lizards, when we meet in the near future to agree a cross party road map for delivering our targets to meet the global climate emergency”.
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