Babauta said Gov. Benigno R. Fitial signed a directive formalizing the creation of the energy panel for the CNMI which will be made up of community stakeholders and representatives from relevant federal agencies.
The government-owned Commonwealth Utilities Corp. continues to rely on fossil fuel to run its power plants on Saipan, Tinian and Rota.
With the help of the National Energy Laboratory, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Interior Department, the CNMI renewable energy steering committee is envisioned to find alternative sources of energy for the islands.
“We’ve signed an executive directive formalizing a renewable energy steering committee that is going to be made up of stakeholders in the community…to ensure that NREL [National Energy Laboratory] expertise is brought out here in the CNMI, to work with the energy steering committee to develop a comprehensive renewable energy plan so we could move the CNMI into the future,” Babauta told the Variety.
Babauta who was on island last week, went to Saipan Southern High School with the governor to see how the campus partly gets its electricity from solar power and, soon, from six more wind turbines.
SSHS principal Craig Garrison’s $6 million grant application to be able to erect six wind turbines at a nearby baseball field to provide electricity on campus and Koblerville Elementary School was approved.
Babauta said he is inspired by the success of the alternative energy at SSHS and hopes to spread it in the CNMI.
