St. Lucia pushing forward with geothermal drive with donor conference
View over Soufriere, St. Lucia, Caribbean (source: flickr/ donnierayjones, creative commons)
Francisco Rojas
4 Mar 2015
The Ministry of Sustainable Development, Energy, Science and Technology is hosting a Donors Conference on financing the Exploratory Drilling Phase of the Geothermal Development Project today
St. Lucia is currently hosting, through the Ministry of Sustainable Development, Energy, Science and Technology a major Donors Conference on financing the Exploratory Drilling Phase of the Geothermal Development Project today Tuesday March 3 and tomorrow, Wednesday 4, 2015.
The two day exercise seeks to design a realistic roadmap for financing the project`s second phase, in a manner that protects the Government and People of Saint Lucia from overexposure in the financing risks involved in this very costly project.
This novel approach aims to raise an estimated US$20 – US$30 million, initially, which will be required for the exploratory drilling.
The Government of Saint Lucia (GoSL) plans to share with the country’s primary donors (i) the details of Geothermal Resource Development Programme as it is currently constituted; the issues that need to be resolved, and how Government plans to address them; and the roles of official and commercial funding for the programme going forward.
A major meeting planned for tomorrow that will involve the advancing of negotiations on the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with LUCELEC, the developer and the Government. The Government’s negotiating team has been ably assisted by a transaction advisor with significant international experience and with this assistance significant progress has been made in the last year.
The consultation will attempt to develop financing options for geothermal development in Saint Lucia using various modalities available from donor facilitating agencies like the Caribbean Development Bank, the World Bank, and the UK Department for International Development. Some of these modalities include the Green Climate Fund and the Clean Technology Fund as well as the use of highly concessionary loan facilities.
St. Lucia also considers lower oil prices not affecting its drive towards renewable energy development, among them a planned 30 MW geothermal development at Soufriere (See this article)
To read further on the donor conference, please follow the link below.
Source: St. Lucia Times & Caribbean Life news
