Government of Dominica to go ahead alone on geothermal project
Drilling rig on project site, Dominica (source: Enorca)
Alexander Richter
26 Oct 2016
The government of Dominica in the Caribbean is prepared to go ahead alone on its geothermal power project, as announced by the Prime Minister of the country.
As reported by local news, the Prime Minister of the Caribbean island state of Dominica has announced that it plans to go ahead alone on its plans for the development of a geothermal power plant.
Speaking during the debate on the Geothermal Resources Development Bill in parliament on Monday, he said the government will take all risks associated with the construction of the facility.
“The government will go it alone with regards to this small plant,” he said.
Skerrit said over the past years the government has been in negotiations with different people on the project but things did not work out due to “other considerations.”
“There were some issues among themselves and they figure it might be in their interest not to proceed with the project,” he stated. “But what did this is that it gave us a better opportunity for the government and people of Dominica to not only own the resources but to own entirely the geothermal plant development.”
He remarked that government will take all risks associated with the project and will eventually make the company available to Dominicans via shares.
“What we’ve seen as a government is that the government of Dominica will take all the risks associated with construction of the plant,” the Prime Minister said. “Once the plant in constructed and we are selling to the grid, we will now invite Dominicans, because it is our intention to make available to the Dominican public about 50 percent of the company, even 100 pecent, to make a minimum of 50 percent available while way of shares in that company to the Dominican public.”
He said the government will be in the business of generating electricity with the intention of selling to DOMLEC and DOMLEC will pass it on to consumers.
The government has spent over $50-million exploring the island’s geothermal potential and there have been complaints in some quarters that the project has been placed on the back burner.
Source: Dominica News Online
