Above: solar lights in St Kitts (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

A $1.5 million solar panel manufacturing plant has opened at St Kitts’ CA Paul Southwell Industrial Park.

The panels will be manufactured by a Taiwanese company called Speedtech Energy that will reportedly be training 15 to 20 Kittitians and Nevisians.

“Training is now the number one priority of Speedtech Energy, because the productivity, the efficiency, and indeed the overall success of this important venture will hinge so assuredly on the quality of skills possessed by those who will work here, and on the efficient application of these skills,” St Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr Denzil Douglas said at the opening.

The panels will be sold in St Kitts and Nevis, the wider Caribbean and the Latin American market, according to the government.

Taiwan has made solar energy a priority in its assistance to St Kitts in recent years, from the installation of solar lights on the island’s main highway to a planned solar farm at Robert L Bradshaw International Airport.