Finding renewable energy sources to power the future of Bermuda - that is the task Belco's recently-appointed president and CEO Vince Ingham has been charged with.

And it was one of the topics debated by Mr. Ingham at the Rotary Club of Hamilton's lunch held at the Royal Hamilton Rotary Club in Paget yesterday.

Mr. Ingham spoke about the security, reliability and sustainability of the Island's energy before fielding questions on solar, wind and nuclear power.

He said Belco had just completed a pilot project in Warwick looking at solar hot water heating and he claimed Belco had not discounted the possibility of nuclear power and is currently monitoring such technology, but would need to set aside space now to accommodate it.

A more viable option, however, is the use of submersible turbines, according to Mr. Ingham.

"We like that technology and that idea of a renewable source that is continuous. We are also tracking other technologies such as wave power. Our belief is that renewable technologies will able available in 10 years time," he said.

And the possibility of employing small micro technologies hooked up to the main grid was also at the forefront of Mr. Ingham's mind.

"We will, in all probability, allow more systems to be connected to the our grid," he said.

"The requirement that we have for the export of power into our systems is that those installments must be there in the long term.

"It is a commitment on the part of the home owner and it is an understanding that we need to be clear about.

"The micro renewable technologies we are talking about are some of the challenges that we have had in Bermuda as to how to incorporate those into the Bermudian way."

He anticipates one problem will be combining solar roof panels with the Bermudian home requirement to collect rain water through roof top catchment.

"Today, with the high cost of fuel, what we are seeing is a growing interest amongst consumers to do something on their own. We simply want to ensure these technologies are implemented in a responsible manner."

Mr. Ingham reckons Belco's biggest challenge is to anticipate the country's electricity needs to meet demand, saying that utilities worldwide will need to build a new plant over the next 10 years to ensure a secure and reliable energy supply.

He pointed to the Belco fire of July 2005 serving as a reminder of the vulnerability of power supply and a wake-up call to everyone.

"Electric power is now a basic necessity for all modern and developed societies, but what is amazing is that so few people actually take an interest in the subject," he said.

"We assume that electricity will always be there, almost like the air we breathe - until we have an event like a hurricane or an island-wide blackout.

"We expect to be held accountable if and when power cannot be supplied, for whatever reason."

Mr. Ingham said the company had received very little feedback from the public on a discussion document issued last year on the future of electricity energy supply.

He cited the addition of more underground cable to the high voltage transmission system (from Serprentine Road to 32 sub-stations across Bermuda) for both security and reliability improvements to the network, as well as providing more sub-stations throughout the Island and carrying out upgrades to transformers to meet increasing loads, all to be done over the next 10 years.

Of reliability, Mr. Ingham said Belco continued to favour the use of the diesel engine because it was well proven and can be relied on by small island communities and various industries.

"In other countries you have the benefit of a national grid through which to import or export power - Bermuda is isolated and accordingly Belco must allow for redundancy in plant capacity," he said.

Finally he touched on the issue of sustainability.

"Our size introduces a certain level of complexity for Bermuda that at times is not considered by most Bermudians," he said.

"Our options for sustainable solutions are not as extensive as the mainland.

"Space or the lack of space is the most serious issue that will challenge Belco's ability to develop a sustainable system."

Mr. Ingham wrapped up by talking about cutting back on the country's dependency on fuel oil and looking at alternatives.

"BELCO has studied wind and has concluded that there is indeed a wind resource, but our main issue with wind is that it is an intermittent power supply," he said.

"Unlike other locations overseas where wind farms have been built, Bermuda does not have a grid through which to important power from another source.

"So, even with wind generation there will still be the need for Belco plant to back up the wind farm when the wind is not blowing or when it is blowing in excess of speeds permissible for safe operation of the wind turbine."