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St. Kitts considering next steps in geothermal development

St. Kitts considering next steps in geothermal development Basseterre, St. Kitts (source: flickr/ Roger W, creative commons)
Alexander Richter 27 Mar 2017

The government of St. Kitts in the Caribbean is now evaluating next steps for its effort to develop a geothermal project, following a promising feasibility study highlighting a geothermal power generation potential of up to 36 MW.

Following successful initial feasibility studies in St.Kitts in the Caribbean, the government is now considering on how to move forward.

At a geothermal stakeholder meeting in St. Kitts last week, French engineering firm Teranov presented its findings that see a geothermal development potential for the Caribbean island state of 18-36 MW.

Minister of Public Infrastructure, Hon. Ian Patches Liburd hailed the findings as “heartening”. The stakeholder meeting was convened with other stakeholder representatives including His Excellency Dr. Vince Henderson, Ambassador, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Commonwealth of Dominica to the United States; Jacques Chouraki, President of Teranov; Dr. Devon Gardner, Programme Manager for Energy at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat;Joseph Williams, Sustainable Energy Advisor at the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB); representatives from the St. Kitts Electricity Company Ltd (SKELEC), Ministry of Finance, Office of the Attorney General, and private sector “as it relates to solidifying our roadmap in respect of our geothermal development here on St. Kitts and in Nevis with particular focus on the development on St. Kitts.”, so the Minister.

There is a draft geothermal agreement on the table from the government’s partners, for which it intends to an independent review after consultation with CARICOM and the Caribbean Development Bank.

“Where we are right now in terms of the next steps, next set of actions and timelines, we have agreed today that we would restructure the geothermal agreement and we have put a timeline on that to be completed by the end of June this year. We also have agreement in terms of the provision of a business plan and financial model from Teranov. We would in terms of the joint venture company arrangements consider the shareholder agreement issues that deal with decision-making; and the commercial issues are key business points in some reform and indeed we did agree on the way forward as it relates to…development of this resource on St. Kitts,” Minister Liburd said.

He said it was necessary to have further discussions because any agreement signed off on has to bear in mind that government owns the land, the utility called SKELEC and the government will own the resource.

Minister Liburd said that whatever comes out of the agreement has to “ensure we protect the best public interest” and “there must be real benefit for the end consumer.

 

Source: WinnFM

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