Above: Guyana

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Could bio-energy be a major way forward for energy production in Guyana?

The country’s government has officially opened a bioethanol demonstration plant in Albion, and says there is potential for a bio-energy production hub in the Canje Basin in Guyana’s Region Six.

According to Agriculture Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy, foreign investors from Malaysia and China have spent the last year in talks with the Ministry on possible bio-energy projects in the area.

In a release, the government said the Mnistry had agreed to sign a Memorandum of Understanding for the investors to launch a feasibility study, with a technical team slated to visit soon for a week-long trip.

According to Ramsammy, the investment group is interested in palm oil for bio-energy production, along with the production of a “particular nutritious crop production.”

Another potential investor from India has signed an MoU to begin a feasibility study on 12,000 plots in Guyana’s Canje Basin, looking at both palm oil production and sugar cane.

If the project goes through, it could cover 100,000 acres of land.

Ramsammy said the demonstration plant signaled the “start of the agro-fuel revolution” in Guyana.