UNEP Partners with CGTC to Advance Intensive Study on Solar Water Heating in the Region

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has embarked on a small-scale funding agreement to accelerate the deployment and utilization of solar water heating (SWH) technologies in the Caribbean Region’s residential, private service sector and public buildings. This effort is part of UNEP’s Global Solar Water Heating (GSWH) Market Transformation and Strengthening Initiative that is being advanced in close collaboration with the University of the Virgin Islands’ Caribbean Green Technology Center (CGTC).

The     study  consists  of  research  across  eight  Caribbean  countries:  Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Jamaica, and Trinidad & Tobago. The main objective of the agreement is to build Knowledge Management (KM) and Networking.  A critical component of the program is to deploy the UNEP SWH TechScope Market Readiness Assessment tool to analyze SWH market conditions consistently across all countries.

The four main tasks to be completed under this study by December 2015 are:

  • National  Solar  Water  Heating  TechScope  Assessments  including  national profiles of the eight countries mentioned above;
  • An  Online  Solar  Water  Heating  Tutorial  to  explain  the  SWH  Techscope Methodology and how to use the SWH Techscope Analysis Tool;
  • Financing and Business Models for Solar Water Heating that provides a case study of different financing and business models for the deployment of solar water heating technology;
  • Solar  Water  Heating  (SWH)  for  the  Tourism  Sector  report  that  highlights experiences to date with SWH deployment in the tourism sector, with a focus on the Caribbean region.

UNEP, CGTC, and a network of global and regional partners, such as the United Nations Development Program and the International Copper Association have been working to co-coordinate the delivery of these studies and its various country specific SWH activities.