Barbados is pressing forward with a landmark 125-megawatt grid-scale battery storage initiative, a key policy move designed to stabilize the country’s national electricity network, unlock nearly 33 megawatts of idle or restricted solar generation capacity, and put the nation on track to hit its ambitious 50 percent renewable energy penetration target by the end of 2027.
Energy Minister Kerrie Symmonds announced the progress during a major State of the Energy Sector address, noting that 60 megawatts of the planned storage capacity has already been awarded through competitive tender processes, with construction and installation scheduled for completion by mid-2027. The remaining 65 megawatts of storage is in active planning stages, bringing the total investment to the 125-megawatt benchmark outlined in the government’s energy transition roadmap.
In his address, Symmonds emphasized that widespread renewable energy adoption in Barbados cannot succeed without confronting the interconnected technical, regulatory, financial and institutional barriers that have slowed progress to date. The minister pointed out that roughly 33.1 megawatts of already licensed solar capacity is currently either operating at just 50 percent of its maximum output or remains entirely unconnected to the national grid, a bottleneck created by the grid’s limited ability to absorb variable renewable energy generation.
To clear this backlog of delayed connections, the government has introduced a transparent, publicly trackable priority connection queue that gives preferential access to solar licensees who agree to pair their generation assets with new battery storage systems. Under the structured timeline, these prioritized projects will be brought fully online within an eight-month window, with clear, mandatory milestones to keep projects on schedule.
“I want these licensees to know now, in the clearest possible terms, that they have not been forgotten and that a structured, prioritized, and time-bound process will now be followed in order to bring their investments fully online,” Symmonds told attendees.
Symmonds framed the current grid constraints as a “victim of our own success,” noting that the rapid growth of residential and commercial solar adoption across the island outpaced projections for grid modernization, creating the current bottleneck. Resolving these constraints is also a critical step to reduce Barbados’ vulnerability to global energy market volatility, he added, since the country relies almost entirely on imported fossil fuels for traditional power generation.
“As a country that imports virtually all of its fossil fuels, we simply cannot control developments in the international markets, but we must take the deliberate steps available to us to reduce our vulnerability to their consequences,” Symmonds said.
The government’s long-term strategy centers on building a hybrid electricity grid that integrates variable renewable energy, backup natural gas generation, and utility-scale energy storage to deliver reliable, affordable power. To broaden public participation in the energy transition, Symmonds also unveiled plans for the Barbados Energy Special Purpose Vehicle, a new structure that will allow local financial institutions and individual Barbadian residents to take an equity stake in new energy infrastructure projects. Under the proposed framework, local credit unions, pension funds, insurance companies and individual investors can acquire up to 49 percent of equity in new battery storage projects, while lead project sponsors will retain a 51 percent controlling stake initially.
“This approach will allow Barbadians not only to build storage infrastructure required to strengthen the national grid, but also it will create economic opportunity for every Barbadian to participate economically in the country’s energy transition,” he explained.
Alongside infrastructure investment, the government is updating statutory guidelines to streamline ministerial exemption powers under the existing Utility Regulation Act, while preserving the independent oversight role of the Fair Trading Commission and maintaining existing consumer protection safeguards. With a longer-term national target of 70 percent renewable energy penetration by December 2029, the Barbados Light & Power Company has been formally directed to update its integrated resource and resilience plan to reflect the new policy direction.
The revised plan will evaluate a full suite of emerging low-carbon technologies, including onshore and offshore wind, biomass, green hydrogen, waste-to-energy and marine energy, alongside expanded demand-side management and energy conservation measures, all aimed at building a more resilient, affordable and sustainable electricity system for Barbados.