IN JAMAICA: Solar Savings - Holy Trinity High Cuts Bill In Half With Renewable Energy....."Our light bill was touching nearly $1 million per month and now our light bills are down to $500,000-$600,000 per month, where we can manage it easier.

SHOCKED THAT the approximately $1 million monthly electricitybill at Holy Trinity High School has been cut by half, the country's sole power provider, the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS), made its way to the Central Kingston-based school to investigate whether the reduction was due to meter tampering or abstraction.

But Holy Trinity, a technical institution with an auto-mechanic centre, cosmetology and computer labs, as well as welding and woodwork workshops, a music department and a home economics department, has plugged into the sun. The school has been relying less on the mainly oil-powered electricity supplied by the JPS.

"Our light bill was touching nearly $1 million per month and now our light bills are down to $500-$600 and odd (thousand) per month, where we can manage it easier. The JPS came because they could not believe the drop that they saw. They came to measure to see what was happening and then they recognised that we had solar panels installed," principalfor the institution, Margaret Brisset-Bolt told The Gleaner.

Brisset-Bolt said it costs approximately $2 million per month to run the school, a tab which does not include wages and salaries. At the same time, the school has an outstanding bill with the JPS, which the principal says they are making every attempt to clear, even as she laments the fact that her institution has been hobbled by low revenues.

Education Minister Ronald Thwaites, in whose constituency Holy Trinity falls, said in the House of Representatives on Wednesday that the experience of schools like Holy Trinity underscores the need for more schools to rely on renewable energy such as solar.

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