Financing options for geothermal project on St. Montserrat, Caribbean

Speaking at the recently held Geothermal Forum on St. Kitts, local HMG Development for International Development (DFID) Rep Martin Dawson, said Montserrat is currently looking at several options for funding the next phase of its geothermal project.

On the financing options being considered for the next phase of the local geothermal project, Martin Dawson said, “Obviously one of them will be grant financing by the U.K Government. One could be a build operate transfer public pro partnership model and I am sure there are many others but we will look at that very closely and look at the cost and benefits of those and then come up with what we think is the most sensible option for Montserrat and we will be prepared then to put forward to U.K. Ministers in particular.”

This is unsustainable position from an environmental, climate change and economic perspective. Electricity prices in Montserrat are some of the highest in the world and are significantly influenced by fluctuations in oil prices on the world market. To date exploratory drilling of the two wells was completed in late 2013, with the testing programme completed in July 2014. These wells are able to produce a level of output, but currently not of the capacity to provide fully the required energy output to remove the requirement for fossil fuel based energy production.

Minister Lewis went to the St. Kittt’s meeting with the knowledge that “A third well drilling programme after proposal is about to begin. The well is to be used reportedly, as a reinjection/production well to allow the two existing wells to have a combined potential generation capacity of 3MW of power – moving to a projected 5MW.

Source: Montserrat Reporter