Jamaicans Getting Off the Grid

While most Jamaicans were ruing missed television programmes, the loss of unsaved computer data and wilting under uncomfortable heat on account of the recent island-wide blackout, there were a handful of persons who didn't notice there was no electricity.

It was only when Michael Drakulich and Patricia Isaacs-Green, both of whom live in St Ann, and Kingstonians Dr Willard Pinnock and Paul Beswick saw that their neighbours' houses were in darkness that they realised there was a power outage. And had they not installed alternative sources of power in their homes and business places years earlier, they would've been in darkness too.

"I didn't even know there was a power cut," said Drakulich. "The only time I knew there was no power was when I walked out of my house and saw everything in darkness and heard a generator making noise down the beach," he boasted.

"We don't know when there's a power cut," said Beswick, speaking on behalf his family. "We didn't know there was one on Wednesday (January 9) and the last one we had [in July 2007], we found out about it six hours into the power cut," he added.

In addition to having light even when the Jamaica Public Service (JPS), the national provider, is unable to supply, and the obvious environmental benefits, the solar enthusiasts are agreed that the advantage of saving thousands of dollars each month in electricity bills is invaluable... read more about Jamaicans using solar power