OUR HISTORY
Renewable Energy Developers was founded in 2010 by Maikel Oerbekke and Kerry-Ann Warren. During 2010 RED focused on project developing and represented SOLID out of Austria. Together with SOLID we developed a major project for MBJ airport that has the potential to save up to 80% energy reduction through a large solar cooling system. This project has yet to be installed due to lack of financing. In that same year RED joined forces with Marvin Goodman and Associates as part of the team for the NHT innovative Dry Valley contest for a housing development / community for 1500 houses. Our team won the contest partly through our contribution that demonstrated an innovative way to finance renewable energy systems for development. We are pending the go ahead for this project to be finalized by the NHT.
In 2010 through 2011 RED worked together with SOLID in Cuba and we almost reached an agreement with the Government of Cuba that would start a production site for solar cooling panels in Cuba for the Caribbean and the America’s. In 2011 we also started to develop the solar cooling system and solar PV system for the new Digicel’s headquarter that was being constructed in DownTown Kingston. This project was finally completed in August 2012 and has contributed towards 3 environmental awards for Digicel so far. Immediately after the Digicel project was finished RED became part of the Jamaica Broilers projects in which during phase 1 each chicken farm got one solar PV system installed on one chicken house as the pilot to curb overall dependency and cost of JPS. Ultimately in the beginning of 2014 Jamaica Broilers received the #1 award and Digicel the #2 award for the most innovative and environmentally friendly company by the Jamaica Environmental Trust which gave RED a unique position of having supplied both the number 1 and 2. In 2014 we developed a 300 KW system for Omni Industries that by then was the second largest system installed in the island and received the NCB Nation Builder award for the most innovative regional company of 2014.
At the end of 2015 we got a major contract awarded to install a major part of the 20 MW Content Solar PV farm in Clarendon. In roughly 5 months we installed +/- 22,800 solar panels and needed racking. We were responsible for 50% of the electrical installation and completed this project on time at the end of the summer of 2016. During 2017 we wrote a brand-new approach for solar leasing that is using our new type of membrane solar panels. We have been seeking a partnership with a financial partner so that together we can implement this and eventually by the end of 2018 we have been able to establish the needed business structure to reach this goal and hope to install our first lease projects during 2019.
In the meantime we have been installing our first membrane solar panel project for Fontana and are now able to show potential clients how this type of installation can benefit them. In February we have installed the first quantity of our glass free flexible solar panels that we have glued on the metal roofing material of the stand and seam roof of a villa in Freeport, Montego Bay.