French AFD prepared to finance 15 MW project in Dominica
Dominica, Caribbean (source: flickr/ boshamite, creative commons)
Alexander Richter
3 Jul 2013
French Development Agency AFD is prepared to pay for the development of a 15 MW geothermal plant in Dominica and there are indications that additional larger development of 120 MW could also see support.
Following news on a planned donor conference in Dominica in September, the government now also updated on its recent visit to France.
According to the news release by the government, “Agence Francaise De Developpement is prepared to finance the construction of a 15 megawatt geothermal plant in Dominica. In the meetings, the French Government expressed interest in supporting Government’s plans to construct a 120 megawatt plant.
The French Development Agency “AFD has said to us very clearly that they are prepared to finance the construction of the 15 megawatt plant in Dominica. Of course [this is] subject to a formal request by the Government of Dominica for the financing. What we will be doing in Dominica is to continue our discussions with the particular partner with whom we’ve been discussing to see if they would want to enter into an agreement with us to continue having this small plant jointly; or if it means that Government may have to own the plant and allow a company to manage it on behalf of the tax payers of the country.”, so Prime Minister Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit.
He continued, “Now as to how much of this total amount will be by way of grants and loans is a matter for further discussions and negotiations with the AFD. Suffice this to say that they have indicated that they are prepared to finance the construction of the 15 megawatt plant in Dominica for domestic consumption. The French Government is certainly keen on purchasing the energy from Dominica; in fact they will purchase energy from Dominica.”
“The French want to play a very critical role in the construction, the management and the financing of the bigger plant. There are French companies who are in discussions with the French Government about their involvement in the construction of the 120 megawatt plant in Dominica and French Government has indicated that the EDF will certainly be buying energy from Dominica once we are at that particular stage,” Hon. Skerrit revealed.
The French Government has also given a commitment to provide technical assistance towards the successful development of Dominica’s geothermal project.
Hon. Skerrit indicated,“The AFD has agreed to provide us with technical assistance by way of paying for a legal expert to further review the geothermal bill and also they will be drafting the regulations for this piece of legislation. Additionally the AFD has been able to negotiate on our behalf with the European Union for an amount of over one million dollar Euros that would go towards providing technical assistance to Dominica with the creation of a project development unit. So we’re moving from a project management unit under the Geothermal Project to a Project Development Unit to deal with the development of the actual plants and that technical assistance will be over a period of 60 months, 5 years.”
Source: Government of Dominica (release)
