Above: Barbados Prime Minister Freundel Stuart (UN Photo/Marco Castro)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Barbados has officially unveiled Cell Four of the Mangrove Pond Landfill at Vaucluse, a project that will ultimately convert solid waste from households across the island into energy.

The approximately $12.5 million project is part of the government’s $188.5 million integrated solid waste management programme.

“This newly-constructed landfill at Mangrove is just one aspect of my administration’s continued commitment to the development of a green economy and a green society in Barbados,” Prime Minister Freundel Stuart said. “The green economy represents the key developmental path for our Small Island Developing State.”

In addition to Cell Four, the Prime Minister announced plans to build a green energy, mass-burn complex at Vaucluse that would generate electricity by converting the bulk of the waste currently disposed at Mangrove Pond into energy.

It would use wind and solar energy resources and include a gas-to-energy component that would help harness some of the greenhouse gases produced by the landfill.

The new facility is part of the country’s move to lower its fuel costs, as Energy Minister Darcy Borce recently told Caribbean Journal.

https://www.caribjournal.com2012/07/02/interview-with-barbados-energy-minister-senator-darcy-boyce/

“Our fuel bill represents the heaviest demand on our foreign exchange,” Stuart said. “We must, therefore, aim to diversify our energy resources to include more renewable and sustainable ones.”

The ultimate goal of the Mangrove Pond project is to convert as much as 350 tonnes of solid waste per day into between 10 and 14 megawatts of electricity.