THE TWO solar-powered street lights at Tudor Street in Bridgetown are being hailed as a pioneering effort in getting Barbados to move beyond the use of fossil fuels.
Member of Parliament for the City, Patrick Todd, told the House of Assembly yesterday that he was happy that his constituency had pioneered the use of solar-powered street lights and was looking forward to such lighting being activated islandwide.
Saying it would drastically reduce electricity costs, Todd also pointed out that if a natural disaster occurred and caused a power outage, Barbados would still be lit at night and therefore relatively safe for people to move around.
He said the criminal element often thrived in dark surroundings, and the provision of proper street lighting across Barbados would be a deterrent to crime.
“Though we cannot eliminate crime, we can reduce it by properly lighting up areas which are traversed by the public,” Todd said, adding that the former Government had left the Tudor Street area in darkness, thereby giving rise to crime.
He added that people could now walk on this heavily used thoroughfare in safety, since floodlights had been placed at the Central Police Station barracks and on the premises of businesses in that City area.
Todd also urged Barbadians not to use incandescent bulbs but to opt for more energy-efficient ones.
Congratulating the Ministry of Transport and Works for the use of photovoltaic panels on the roof of its Pine, St Michael buildings and BICO manufacturing company for its energy conservation efforts, Todd urged livestock farmers to embrace biogas generation from animal waste and suggested that private sugar cane growers invest in the production of ethanol.
