Alternative sources of energy

For quite a long time now we have been taking our natural resources for granted. We have been exploiting these resources as if they were unlimited, to the extent that we became fully dependent on them. It was only in the past few years that we started realising that such resources are limited. With the large economic growth in countries like China and India we started feeling the pinch of such limited resources. In the past 10 years we have seen the price of oil rise from $12 a barrel to $150 a barrel. Today, the price of oil hovers around $100 a barrel, leaving quite a devastating effect on the global economy.

Such effects have been prompting a global response. We have been realising that practically no country, in the long run, could afford to keep buying such resources at such high prices. We have also been realising that converting such resources into energy is leaving very negative effects on our environment to the detriment of our health. Thus, something had to be done and the logical answer is to convert to unlimited and cleaner and cheaper sources of energy such as the sun and the wind.

Malta, as a country with no natural resources and a country totally dependent on natural resources, is also feeling the pinch of the prices of these resources and, as a result, over the past few years has been working so as to depend less on these resources. Over time we have seen a developing strategy to shift from traditional natural resources to cleaner resources, which Malta has plenty of. Our strategy is to depend on three resources: the wind, the sun and our waste.

For the past year or so we have been seeing our old rubbish dump being transformed into a source of energy where gasses produced from this dump are being converted into energy in the form of electricity supplied to households around the area. Over the past three budgets we have also seen the government increasing its subsidies to individuals who wish to convert to solar energy and now the government has announced the construction of the first offshore wind farm at a cost of €130 million, which would supply enough energy to four per cent of our population.

All these initiatives are certainly a bold step in the right direction. The government is clearly showing that it is committed in reducing Malta's dependence on traditional natural resources. However, there is a long and exciting way to go.

Malta has made it very clear that by the year 2020, 10 per cent of our country's energy will come from unlimited and cleaner resources. So in the years to come we will be witnessing more of such initiatives.

At the end of the day, however, this does not depend solely on the government but on each and every one of us. We must ensure that we do not waste electricity and water. We must invest in energy-saving devices and we must always keep in mind that we are consuming a natural resource that would eventually slip away.

Therefore, we have to use it wisely. If all of us make an effort to use such resources wisely then there are no doubts that the country's consumption of such resources will decrease over time with great cost benefits for our economy and a much cleaner environment for us to live in and enjoy.

The author is deputy mayor of St Julians.