Page 16 - The St. Kitts-Nevis Observer Issue-1158-06012017
P. 16
Page 16 The St. Kitts-Nevis Observer. Friday January 6, 2017 LOCAL NEWS
Positive signs for geothermal in St. Kitts say Liburd
By Loshaun Dixon He cautioned there still must be
exploratory drilling to confirm the
Basseterre, St. Kitts-The potential for resource and to determine how many
geothermal energy in the Federation mega watts can be derived from those
took an upswing accorging to the Hon. wells.
Ian ‘Patches’ Liburd who disclosed
some positive news based on a peer “What we are looking at between 18
review on geothermal prospects. and 35 megawatts so it is positive
news,” he declared.
More than a year ago, 2015 the
Government of St. Kitts and Nevis Liburd said a risk analysis has been
increased its efforts to find and expand started.
renewable energy alternatives by con-
ducting a feasibility study in St. Kitts to ‘It is a public private partnership (PPP)
see if there was any potential for geot- approach and analysis,’ he said. “We
hermal energy. have engaged the Caribbean
Development Bank and the CARICOM
Last week in an interview with the Energy Unit to help us.”
press, Mr. Liburd gave an update on the
possibility of geothermal energy by The Energy Minister also gave a time-
saying, “We have some very positive line of the upcoming steps of the initia-
news. A very reputable international tive.
firm has established there is in fact a
geothermal resource on St. Kitts.” “We just got back some reports from
observnv@sisterisles.kn Minister of Public infrastructure and
469-5907 Transportation the Hon. Ian ‘Patches
Liburd
both parties and hopefully in the new
year we can meet the legal experts,
Financial experts and all the technical
people to finalize the agreement,” he
declared.
He said the government would first
have to establish an Drilling Incen-tivi-
sation Agreement with developers.
“Without the agreement we can’t
accept the terms of the exploration
drilling. Hopefully by the end of
January we can get to that stage,” he
said.
The Geothermal project forms part of
the government’s overall thrust to
develop a green economy in the
Federation. Its debt to the Petro Caribe
organization has amounted to close to
$100 millon.
For the past 12 year Nevis has been try-
ing to establish its own geothermal
gains. In May 2013, Liburd said the
work in St. Kitts should not stop the
advances made in Nevis or slow down
St. Kitts’ own development of geother-
mal energy.
“The development in St. Kitts will not
stop and the notion will not put a road
block in the progress of development in
Nevis. The fact that it is on Nevis
should not exclude us from developing
on St. Kitts. Both will complement
each other,” he said.
CMYK
