Resscott urges T&T to embrace renewables with its help | Local Business

THE world is embracing renewable energy, and Trinidad and Tobago needs to follow suit.

And Resscott Ltd says it wants to help in this regard.

The company was founded eight years ago in the oil and gas industry by Graeme Jones, its managing director, and Shamir Khan, operations director, who together possess over 15 years of experience.

Speaking with Express Business, Khan said, “We saw the need for increased energy globally and at the same time applied our passion for green and sustainable energy development which was inevitable to drive the future of energy demand. Resscott Ltd was later spearheaded by Celeste Ramoutar who applied strategic methods, utilising quality products and designs, coupled with our past industrial knowledge to help develop cost effective and reliable equipment and projects to meet our vision.”

Renewable energy benefits

“With our financing strategies, the entire Caribbean can access renewable power and at the same time develop their country. Resscott Ltd’s renewable energy plan is to develop the Caribbean utilising technology to increase and create a new GDP. Technology requires power, and renewables can solve that. For example, we can increase jobs, reduce crime, solve food security matters, increase the export market in agriculture and reduce the food security bill, provide water from solar power, increase tourism for increased foreign exchange, benefit from powering existing power plants and oil and gas giants by making them more efficient and reduce their operational cost.”

Khan said these are just a few of the benefits that can come from harnessing the power of renewables.

As for why people should opt for a renewable source of energy, he explained, “We all have a responsibility to save the environment and recycle. In synergy with renewable energy, this is affordable and makes sense to save money. A great plan ahead is that when the power and a small housing or commercial park are combined, it can automatically become a microgrid feeding megawatts of power to the grid.”

He added that people buying equipment must ensure the company provides trained personnel and ensure all safety devices are installed.

Khan highlighted that what sets Resscott apart from other renewable energy service providers is its adherence to strict engineering standards, especially considering that the equipment must accommodate high energy demands.

“Resscott Ltd uses German and American products. Other suppliers of equipment must meet engineering standards, especially from the Chinese market—where many solar panels come from—as the equipment must facilitate high energy demand for commercial clients and at the same time support the enormous residential market.”

He added, “Another advantage is that Resscott stands by quality, has good training, HSE (health, safety, executive), remuneration, gender, inclusivity policies in place for their workforce and is engaged in community outreach programmes.”

Though he warned that the products are usually expensive, Resscott puts together a solar system design that is affordable.

Inexpensive solar system

“Products are usually expensive, however, the solar systems design put together by the Resscott are indeed affordable and anyone can access a solar system that makes sense to them. The systems promoted by Resscott usually have a five-to-eight-year return on investment and not 20-plus years. There are many tax breaks existing. The real tax breaks should be applied to the residential market where there is none for solar PV (photovoltaics) systems. Because of this, the mass of the country is not viewing solar as important due to cost.”

He added that financing, tax breaks and grid feedback for the residential market will help the country meet its carbon reduction goals as well as reduce authorities’ expenses.

“They can purchase excess renewable power cheaper to power other heavy consumers. They are to keep in mind, that the country needs to keep its manufacturing industry alive with power and should be prepared to supply this demand.”

Wanting to offer advice to the authorities on how to get the multitude of benefits of renewables, Khan said they must focus on professionals and work with them to prevent delays.

“As it stands, in the Resscott Ltd professional view, there are many failed projects issued by the Government and wasted money. But this is due to poor advice. The money can be used to deploy solar and remove street lighting, power recreational grounds, power housing development, buildings, and shipping ports and feed megawatts of power to other heavy energy consumers. The systems here last longer, generate money and serve better purposes. Simple fix better, investment and free advice.”

The company is also looking at solving the waste disposal problem in T&T with its new solar-powered waste disposal machines, deploying its security services and solar powered water treatment and water desalination plants.

Additionally, it aims to combat praedial larceny to minimise agricultural losses, establish Trinidad and Tobago as a hub for food exports through its agricultural projects, and upgrade and finance the tourism sector.