A Bermuda company has a $2 billion plan to lead the Island to energy independence within ten years.

The ambitious project, which aims to give the Island an electricity supply fuelled entirely by renewable sources, has been in the works for two years.

Urban Maximum Industries (UMI), headed by founder Craig Looby, is spearheading the plan, along with US firm Hydrogen 411 Technology.

The group has already showed their ideas, which entail using a mix of wind, solar and hydrogen fuel to power the Island, to Government representatives in preliminary discussions.

They believe the project can be funded entirely from private-sector sources and say they have already lined up investors ready to commit about $500 million if Government gives the necessary permissions to realise the project.

The pay-off for the Island, they argue, is that Bermuda would eradicate the hefty fossil fuel bill that it foots today in order to power the Island.

In a press release yesterday, UMI said: “If you were surrounded with an endless amount of clean fuel would you choose to ignore it and import costly dirty fossil fuel?”

The news comes as Belco is putting the finishing touches to its Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), which offers the utility’s vision for the electricity supply of the future, and is expected to be submitted to Government next month. The plan includes Belco converting its Pembroke power plant to burn to burn natural gas instead of heavy oil and diesel. There are also solar and energy conservation components to the IRP.

Mr Looby believes Bermuda should have alternatives to consider. He is quick to point out that he has no background in energy or engineering — his professional experience is in media production. But driven by a desire to find a way to wean the Island off its fossil fuel dependency, he has contacted experts in the field of renewable energy, as well as engineers, accountants, financiers and architects, who could help to make it happen.

The inspiration for the ideas came after Mr Looby suffered a health scare in 2011. “After I got out of hospital, I was looking at how we could solve the biggest problems facing Bermuda and energy security was one.

“So I did some research into the options that could be put in place in Bermuda to get the Island on a path to energy independence.”

With Government having put forward its proposals for electricity policy last Friday and Belco about to make public its own vision, Mr Looby is well aware that decisions made now will have an impact for generations to come.

“We are at a crossroads,” he said. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Bermuda to free itself from fossil fuels.”

During the research, he came across Hydrogen 411 Technology, a consulting firm that specialises in numerous forms of alternative energy.

The company’s founder John Ballor, a former professional musician and Emmy award-winning cameraman, has a passion for renewable energy and believes Bermuda’s economy could be transformed by a switch away from hydrocarbons.

There is a basic problem with both solar and wind energy — when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing, there are interruptions in supply. And any electricity system has to have sufficient capacity to meet peak demand — which Belco reported as 107 megawatts (MW) last year, down from 123MW as recently as 2010.

In an interview, Mr Ballor said the UMI plan could overcome those problems with generator sets powered by hydrogen fuel — derived from seawater through the process of electrolysis. Hydrogen fuel can also be used to fuel cars, buses and trucks equipped with a fuel cell, another aspect of the UMI plan.

A group of wind turbines, probably eight, each capable of generating 8MW, would be a major part of the renewable capacity.

“The turbines would be 20 to 25 miles offshore, so aesthetics would not be an issue,” he added. “They would be off the south shore of the Island, not in the way of shipping lanes.

“We would look to generate another 50MW from solar power, using panels installed at homes and businesses. Bermuda does not have enough land for large-scale solar farms.”

So if such a system were built during several phases at a cost of around $2 billion, what would happen to our electricity bills?

“We have projected several amortisations and what we’re looking at is paying about half of what you’re paying now, based on a 20-year amortisation,” Mr Ballor said.

The plan envisages a future in which the only fuel costs will be the maintenance and costs involved in making hydrogen fuel, freeing the Island from oil and natural gas market volatility, making the economy more competitive by helping energy-guzzling businesses to slash their costs, while residents enjoy lower electricity bills and no pollution from the burning of hydrocarbons.

While it may sound like a utopian dream, Mr Looby said UMI has the support of many Island residents who believe it can become reality.

“We have been fortunate to have a great cross-section of Bermuda professionals on board with this, the support has been there from the get-go,” Mr Looby said. “Everybody’s very excited.”

The group of people working on it had included architects, financial services professionals, those in the power sector and transport sector.

UMI says it wants to work with Belco, although it has not yet managed to hold talks with the utility’s representatives.

“We welcome Belco shareholders to contact us and work with us,” UMI stated. “Potential local investors, we would be interested in speaking with you, as our model has a much wider deployment scope, that goes beyond Bermuda.

“We want to let the public know this new plant build is not going to use tax payer funds, will not require electricity rate increases, will create short-, medium- and long-term jobs and let them know the deployment can spur wage increases in tourism and drive increased tourist air arrivals by making Bermuda and hotels more competitive.”

UMI intends to add detail to its vision in the coming weeks as part of the upcoming national debate on the future of the Island’s electricity supply