St. Lucia holding public consultation meeting on geothermal exploration, 11 April 2017
View over Soufriere, St. Lucia, Caribbean (source: flickr/ donnierayjones, creative commons)
Alexander Richter
11 Apr 2017
Continuing efforts on geothermal exploration work, the government of St. Lucia in the Caribbean is holding a public consultation meeting with stakeholders, 11 April 2017.
In a release yesterday, the government of St. Lucia in the Caribbean has announced a public consultation meeting for its geothermal development efforts.
Being committed to the pursuit of a successful development of geothermal energy resources on the island state, this is expected to assist the island in reaching a 35% renewable energy target by 2025 and 50% by 2030, based on a mix of geothermal, wind and solar energy sources, as set in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
The GOSL has received financial assistance and support from the World Bank (WB), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), Government of New Zealand, (GoNZ), and the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI), to complete the surface exploratory phase of the project.
The exploratory phase of the project continues with the next crucial steps being the completion of an environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) which entails a preliminary assessment of environmental and social impacts associated with the project. Also, included in the immediate next steps is a pre-feasibility assessment which entails initial financial, economic, legal and power systems evaluations.
This assessment will provide informed recommendations to the Government on proceeding to the next stage of the geothermal programme.
To this end, the Department of Sustainable Development in collaboration with the Department of Planning and National Development with support from the World Bank is pleased to convene its third public consultation on the Geothermal Resource Development Project in the town of Soufriere.
The consultation is scheduled to take place on April 11th 2017, between 9:00 am and 12:30 pm at the Leisure Inn Conference Room, in Soufriere. The consultation is opened to key stakeholders and community members in the town of Soufriere and Choiseul where the geothermal resource is located.
High-level representatives from the Department are expected to make informative presentations of the plans of the GoSL for geothermal exploration.
Source: St. Lucia News Online
