Nevis’ premier highlighting benefits of geothermal for the island state

Alexander Richter 4 Jan 2009

In his New Year’s greeting, the Prime Minister of the islands state of Nevis and St. Kitts, Joseph Parry, highlighted the great benefit that geothermal could and will have for this Caribbean state.

He talked about that the exploration of geothermal energy with the assistance of the West Indies Power company being “of greatest significance to the people of Nevis”. He further talked about not being fooled by current oil prices as they will – in his words – rise again. Therefore he and his government believe that “the development of geothermal energy will bring stability to electricity rates and also ensure consistent and affordable rates.” Geothermal “will create additional jobs (..) in the construction phase, the production phase and it will attract other industries in search of cheap power to Nevis. … and will help the government to save money and will attract revenue, especially from sales to other industries and overseas in the future.”

Details about terms and conditions of the contractual agreement with West Indies Power, will be made public before the end of January 2009. Those will cover royalties, equity participation of government, profit making, profit sharing and a fund to finance education, health and youth affairs on the island of Nevis. Construction of the first geothermal plant will commence later this year with a view to provide the island of Nevis with geothermal power in the first part of 2010.

Source: SKNVibes