EU funding for geothermal pre-feasibility studies on Saba, St. Eustatius and St. Kitts, Caribbean
As part of European Interreg Caribbean programme funding is provided for geothermal pre-feasibility studies on the islands of Saba, St. Eustatius and St. Kitts, and on electricity and digital interconnection with the establishment of a partnership between the islands integrated into the network.
The Overseas Collectivité of St. Martin in the Carribean, Collectivité of the French Republic and an Outermost Region (OR) of the European Union, is is putting a strong emphasis on regional integration, inter-island cooperation and the notions of sustainability and globality at the heart of its development strategy. This has been reported by the Daily Herald.
As part of its charing of the conference of presidents of the ORs from December 2018 to January 2020, it looks at promoting the concrete implementation of an Electric and Digital Interconnection Project in neighbouring territories.
This large-scale inter-island project would be carried out by the Collectivité of St. Martin as part of the European Interreg Caribbean Programme 2014-2020.
The project has two components: the Energy component, which is the driving force and trigger of this initiative, and the Digital component as a complementary enhancement. The Energy component of the project involves developing the geothermal potential of the Leeward Islands through the production and distribution of electricity via an interconnected network integrating all these territories.
The geothermal resource allows an electricity production in base, decarbonated, insensitive to climatic variations and at a much lower cost than the existing one. Among the targeted islands, St. Kitts, Nevis, Saba and St. Eustatius, all located on the volcanic arc, potentially have geothermal resources.
The second part of the project involves a digital interconnection of the Leeward Islands, taking advantage of the installation of electrical cables equipped with optical fibres to create the network infrastructure.
The project financed by the European Interreg Caribbean programme provides at this stage for the initiation of pre-feasibility studies on the potential existence of geothermal resources on the islands of Saba, St. Eustatius and St. Kitts, and on electricity and digital interconnection with the establishment of a partnership between the islands integrated into the network.
President Gibbs stated during his speech: “It is our ambition to ensure that our territories, with dedicated tools, can become exemplary by developing research and development (R&D), particularly in the areas of the circular economy, renewable energies and digital technology.”
At the same time, the President reiterated his wish to “continue to make progress on this project, while at the same time guaranteeing the diversity and security of our energy supplies.”
Source: The Daily Herald