World Bank visit to prepare for geothermal project in St. Lucia, Caribbean
View over Soufriere, St. Lucia, Caribbean (source: flickr/ donnierayjones, creative commons)
Alexander Richter
18 Nov 2016
Coordinating efforts towards up to $18 million in funding for a geothermal project on this Caribbean Island, a World Bank team is to visit Saint Lucia next week.
Local news from the Caribbean report on a visit by a team of the World Bank to Saint Lucia next week. The team is to conduct an implementation support mission for the Saint Lucia Geothermal Resource Development Project.
A series of sessions have been planned from November 21 to 23, 2016 involving officials of the World Bank,Saint Lucia Electricity Services, Clean Infra partners and the Government of Saint Lucia.
The main objectives of the meetings are: to obtain an update on the current status of the project, confirm the proposed drilling programme and to determine and confirm project design as well as to discuss the prefeasibility assessment and the environmental and social aspects of the project.
The next phase of geothermal exploration operation includes the implementation of an initial exploration drilling programme and associated well testing, aimed at exploring and harnessing geothermal energy in Saint Lucia.
To this end, the World Bank Group is coordinating efforts towards the mobilization of USD15-18 million of grant and concessional funding for the Geothermal Resource Development Project, in order to reduce overall project costs on the government and the tariff to consumers.
Geothermal energy is the optimal option for diversifying the power generation mix in Saint Lucia, as it can provide reliable base load electricity and can reduce Saint Lucia’s vulnerability to electricity price volatility.
Saint Lucia`s Geothermal Development Project is forecast to supply between 15 MW to 30 WMW of base load and expected to be operational by 2023.
Source: Official press release via St. Lucia News Online
