St. George's PLP candidate John Gibbons said the Island must do more to adopt renewable energy sources.

Responding to comments from Belco head Vincent Ingham that 20 percent of the Island's electricity could come from renewable sources in ten years, Mr. Gibbons said the goal should be double that.

"Twenty percent in ten years is certainly within reach, but we should be aiming at 40 percent," Mr. Gibbons said. "Energy independence is real freedom, and that's what the end goal should be."

Earlier this week Mr. Ingham, CEO and President of the Ascendant Group which operates Belco, said he was aiming for 20 percent of Bermuda's electricity to come from independent sources.

He said Bermuda could see its first wind farm in the next three to five years, adding that he believed 20 percent of the Island's power will come from renewable sources by the year 2020.

Mr. Ingham called such energy sources the future of the Island and the company, but said the high cost of such technology currently deters many who want to adopt it.

"A lot of work is going into the design of these products, and we feel that as the price goes down and the efficiency increases, it will become easier for Bermuda to adopt the technology," Mr. Ingham said earlier this week.

Mr. Gibbons, who plans to challenge UBP leader Kim Swan in St. George's West in the next national election, agreed that the cost of technology was still discouraging, but he said that government could, and should, do more to encourage adoption of renewable energy sources.

"All big steps forward have come from agreements between Government and private parties, and this is something that can be encouraged. Belco is looking at putting a 58-kilowatt (solar) system on their roof, and that's great, but right now there's nothing that says if you are building something new you have to install a solar system."

He also said that, while the cost of installing an offshore wind farm could be extremely high, the benefits of even a few large wind turbines could be immense.

"I remember when they announced the incinerator they said it would produce 2.5-megawatts, and at that time, they said that could account for five percent of the Island's electricity.

"There are turbines now that can produce five megawatts of electricity. I don't know how much our energy usage has gone up since they started work on the incinerator, but imagine the kind of difference just a few wind turbines could make."

Along with helping the environment, supporting large-scale renewable energy and recycling programmes would also benefit the economy and the public as a whole.

"People think environmentalism is just about protecting trees and saving the whales. It's not. It's about people," he said.

"Recycling has become big business. Garbage is being shipped from country to country for the gold, silver and copper that is in it. If we produce so much waste, there has to be a way to use that asset."

As time progresses, Mr. Gibbons said he hoped Bermuda would be able to put its past arguments behind it, and move forward.

"My focus is on the future," he said. "Every time an issue comes up, we start to hear people talk about the battles that have already been fought and that are already over.

"That's the problem with politics. PLP, UBP, black and white. Some people try to make everything a partisan issue.

"Thankfully, now some of the older generation are being replaced with younger people who have a different viewpoint."