News

Venture pitch for a geothermal power plant in Jamaica

Venture pitch for a geothermal power plant in Jamaica Beach Resort at Montego Bay, Jamaica (source: flickr/ mcclouds, creative commons)
Alexander Richter 28 Jan 2013

A group of investors is looking at geothermal development in Jamaica, estimating a 100 MW of electricity generation potential and competitive costs to current generation.

As part of a venture pitch as part of the three-day Jamaica Stock Exchange Investment and Capital Markets Conference, a local business man pitched a geothermal power project.

While a $15 million price tag on a 15 MW plant does not sound very realistic, he presented the case based on “a Return of Investment (ROI) of less than a year”.

Krishna Vaswani, is – so the local news – part of a team of investors that has already identified 12 locations across Jamaica for geothermal development. His group estimates the potential for Jamaica to be about 100 MW.

With a cost of about US$0.09 to 0.15/ kWh it is much less than consumer prices of currently $0.40/ kWh for the state utility Jamaica Public Service Company.

Renewable-energy projects are currently being screened by the Jamaican Government, which is reshaping its energy mix to incorporate 30 per cent of alternatives to oil by 2030.

The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) has opened bidding on 115 megawatts (MW) of clean-energy projects, which in the first round secured 85 expressions of interest from Jamaican and international sources.”

Source: Jamaica Gleaner