Caribbean nations to develop geothermal power plants
Wednesday, April 7, 2004
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts: St. Kitts and Nevis,
along with Dominica and St. Lucia, are involved in a regional project which
will enable the commercial development of geothermally fueled electric power
plants. The announcement follows discussions
in Basseterre between an OAS technical team and St. Kitts and Nevis Deputy
Prime Minister, Sam Condor, officials of several government ministries and
non-governmental organisations including the Brimstone Hill Society National
Park and the St. Kitts and Nevis Chamber Industry and Commerce.
Director of the Office of the General Secretariat of the OAS, Mr. Kenneth
Parker said the regional sustainable energy initiative is primarily funded by
grants from the Global Environmental Fund and the French Development Agency,
together with managerial support from the OAS.
Mr. Parker said the OAS assistance includes establishing a US$10 million
drilling risk fund and providing a multi-million dollar technical assistance
aid grant to St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominica and St. Lucia.
“This support is being designed to enable countries to attract quality
developers to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in regional project
geothermal investments,” said Parker. OAS
Project Manager for the Geo-Caraibes Initiative, Mr. Mark Lambrides, in
highlighting the major purpose of the project said the collaboration with St.
Kitts and Nevis are to maximise the potential for geothermal development as
part of the regional initiative in order to supply low cost, environmentally
sound energy for multiple uses, and to enable the governments to attract and
manage investment by proven geothermal developers.”
While in the Federation, the OAS team made field visits to potential
geothermal sites in both St. Kitts and Nevis.
During the sessions with governmental, technical and public interest groups,
the discussions revolved around “how an environmentally clean fuel developed
by a proven technology could provide an inflation-proof energy source and how
development of geothermal energy could lead to economic development based on
national resources.”
“Regional energy independence historically
has had a multiplier effect on local economies,” said the OAS..
Back...
Most popular
articles: viewed, printed and e-mailed
Printable
version
| 
