Dr. Legena Henry, CEO and Founder of Rum and Sargassum Inc., will attend a reception to mark the official visit of Myriam Ferran, Deputy Director-General of International Partnerships at the European Commission.
The reception will take place at Moondale on November 23, hosted by Ms. Malgorzata Wasilewska, Ambassador of the European Union to Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean States, OECS and CARICOM/CARIFORUM.
Just before the reception, Henry will present Ferran with a token of appreciation at an operational tour of the construction site for Barbados’ first-ever biogas service station, jointly conducted by the Barbados National Oil Company (BNOC) and Rum and Sargassum Inc.
Jonathan Reid, Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister of Barbados, will deliver introductory remarks at the operational site visit. James Browne, CEO of BNOC, will lead a guided tour on the company’s compound, while Henry will present a simulated demonstration of the pilot biogas station’s technical operations.
The operational site visit and official reception represent a significant step forward for the mission of the renewable energy start-up.
“Barbados’ commitment is to become fossil-fuel free by 2030, while the European Union aims to be climate-neutral by 2050. That objective is at the heart of the European Green Deal and in line with the EU’s commitment to global climate action under the Paris Agreement. This Rum and Sargassum project with BNOC to establish a biogas service station here in Bridgetown aligns perfectly with both of those commitments,” said Henry, who also lectures in renewable energy at The University of the West Indies (UWI) Cave Hill Campus in Barbados.
In March 2023, Rum & Sargassum Inc.’s SarGASsum project was competitively selected to receive a €300,000 research grant from the Harnessing Innovative Technologies to Support Resilient Settlements on the Coastal Zones of the Caribbean (HIT RESET) project, for fostering climate resilient coastal communities. The grant goes toward two project deliverables: the implementation of a mobile app to help predict Sargassum seaweed biomass influx patterns, and the establishment of the pilot biogas service station.
The SarGASsum project was formally launched in Bridgetown on June 7 in a ceremony that included remarks from Lisa Cummins, Barbados Minister of Energy and Business, Dr. Graham King, UWI HIT RESET Caribbean Team Lead and Director of the UWI St Augustine Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship; and Luca Trinchieri, Team Lead of the Green Deal Partnership in the delegation of the European Union to Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean States, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States and CARICOM/CARIFORUM.
The HIT RESET Caribbean initiative includes concurrent projects in Dominica, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago. It is being executed by UWI St Augustine, the Caribbean Disaster and Emergency Management Agency and Anton de Kom University of Suriname.
HIT RESET Caribbean is one of the 12 initiatives funded by the African, Caribbean and Pacific Innovation Fund and supported by the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States’ Research and Innovation Programme, with the financial contribution of the European Union.
This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of Rum and Sargassum Inc. and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union and the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States.
