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Dominica has spent so far $54m on geothermal development

Dominica has spent so far $54m on geothermal development Dominica, Caribbean (source: flickr/ boshamite, creative commons)
Francisco Rojas 17 Mar 2015

Dominica will first seek to build a small plant capable of generating six to eight mega watts of electricity, with the hope of expanding to a much larger plan

The Hon. Minister for Trade, Energy and Employment represented Dominica and reported on the island’s cutting edge geothermal project. The €8m interregional project is designed to capitalize on Caribbean geothermal energy.

The project is a continuation of assessments of the potential of the Wotten Waven geothermal resource in Dominica between April 2008 and June 2009.

“When the project as first conceived, there were other partners like St. Lucia and St. Kitts & Nevis who were a part of the Interreg IV but it has since been narrowed down to mainly Dominica, Martinique and Dominica. This is why we are here today; we know the importance of the geothermal development programme in Dominica,” reported the Hon. Minister for Trade, Energy and Employment, Ian Douglas.

He also explained his presentation.

“What I sought to do was to give the Interreg partners a brief overview of where we are to-date with our geothermal development programme.”

Since then, Dominica has successfully drilled test wells, production wells and a re-injection well, as well as focusing on the sensitization of the public about the project and its implications.

Dominica will first seek to build a small plant capable of generating six to eight mega watts of electricity, with the hope of expanding to a much larger plant, with up to 120 mega watts, to supply neighboring Guadeloupe and Martinique.

“The small plant has two purposes,” Hon. Douglas said, “The production of electricity in Dominica [and] act as a pilot project so that the experiences from tits development will serve us well in the development of the larger plant.

“That is why it was very important that I was here today to give Dominica’s commitment to our foreign partners and to say thank you for their help, commitment and funding. Had it not been for that Interreg partnership, perhaps we would not have been as far as we are today.”“

To date over $54m has been spent to the exploration of geothermal energy in Dominica.

The Hon. Minister highlighted some critical areas for the full realization of geothermal energy.

“Of course, we have to determine the kind of equipment that we have to use for the small plant, eg; the turbines. We want to use the most efficient turbines out there. There are various schools of thought as to what we should use.

“Also, the power has to ultimately be put on the local grid and so it has to be upgraded to accept the geothermal power. [When] we put the power on the grid, the generators of DOMLEC must be able to accept the power. All of those issues have to be ironed out.”

Source: Press release by the Government of the Commonwealth of Dominica