The government of St Kitts and Nevis recently finalised their National Energy Policy and the Energy Minister, the Hon. Dr Earl Asim Martin announced that they are hoping for a 60% increase in renewable energy by 2015.
Dr Martin expects this to be achieved through a number of different initiatives and it’s the government's aim to make the country the smallest green nation in the Western Hemisphere. At the moment the government run electricity department is 100% dependent upon fossil fuel but there are plans to exploit the geothermal energy capabilities on Nevis.
The West Indies Power Holdings BV, a geothermal developer is planning an 8.5 MW project on the island of Nevis with a $55 million loan from the Export Import Bank of the United States. This will also upgrade 8 miles of transmission lines. These projects will focus on Nevis and Saba. Exploration for geothermal energy has been ongoing 2006 with initial drilling proving extremely successful.
There are also plans for wind energy on St Kitts and the government has entered into an agreement with North Star Ltd for the construction of a 2.1 MW wind generation plant. It will be built in Bellevue and is expected to produce 20 MW of wind energy.
The government is also considering a waste to fuel plant and a solar energy plant as part of its plan to produce clean energy. It already has proposals from Concord Blue Energy for the waste to energy project and from Gigawatt Global for the solar energy project. Access to renewable energy should be extremely useful to the rapid development that is taking place on the island.
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