Government has pledged to do a better job than its predecessors to nurture and support a sustainable energy industry.In his budget brief on the Energy Department, Economic Development Minister Grant Gibbons said that the Energy White Paper will be revised to reflect economic realities and technological advances.Opposition MPs noted that much of the accomplishments and plans were from the former administration.He said the goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 30 percent from 2008 levels remain but some of the recommended measures could be changed.“In part because of the economy, and in part because of the lack of focus on energy matters, certain initiatives have stalled, such as the mass adoption of solar photovoltaic installations.“In this current economy, the rebates Government offers are simply not sufficient for most homeowners to make the investment, and larger Government subsidies are not a viable answer,” Dr Gibbons said.It had also become apparent that conservation measures can yield much more than the anticipated 20 percent reduction in use, he continued.Technological advances such as natural gas are “game changers” and could help Bermuda to exceed its 2020 goals.Government will help to implement a number of proposals which had not been supported in the past.Utility-scale solar farms capable of providing between ten and 15 megawatts of power is one such project, the Minister said, adding that the Department had been in talks with Belco to ensure that the Island’s infrastructure was capable of distributing the power through the wider grid.“If not handled judiciously, the impact to the existing system might be significant, with potential blackouts and load shedding at unpredictable times.“There is also the need to look at the intermittent nature of larger scale solar farms and the ability to use energy storage devices to better regulate the energy supply and distribution,” Dr Gibbons said.The Energy Department is also working with the Environmental Protection Department as it examines offshore utility-scale wind turbines and the potential of ocean swell energy.“These wind projects must be examined carefully, with sensitivity to the marine environment. Note that when we discuss offshore wind in Bermuda, we would necessarily have to develop on the reef platform, as deep water platforms would be cost prohibitive and potentially unstable.“As a result, the Department is working with the Department of Environmental Protection, in their efforts to develop a marine spatial plan.”The Minister continued: “Ocean swell energy may be one of the more promising longer term technologies, as it has the capacity of providing ‘firm’ and dispatchable energy.“There is a system in its research and development phase here at the moment, which uses the movement of the ocean to generate power in a small, land-based plant.“The wave actuators would be completely submerged, low-maintenance, and would also provide artificial reefs.“There are no lubricants involved that could leak out, and a by-product of this process is emissions-free fresh water.“We are looking forward to more developments on this front, and results of wave studies thus far indicate that Bermuda may be an excellent candidate for this technology.Combined heat and power which uses wasted heat from conventional power generation “shows great promise in moving Bermuda toward a distributed generation model, where there are other nodes of generation throughout the electrical grid as opposed to our current situation where most electricity is generated from a central point and radially transmitted”.Distributed solar photovoltaic projects are “also contributing positively toward Bermuda’s energy independence.”On natural gas, the Minister said: “Natural gas solutions in and of themselves may be what allows Bermuda to reach the emissions goals as set in the 2011 Energy White Paper. Buses and trucks can also be easily converted to run on natural gas.”