Above: St Lucia

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Following this month’s high-profile renewable energy conference on Moskito Island in the British Virgin Islands, St Lucia Prime Minister Dr Kenny Anthony has asked Energy Minister Dr James Fletcher to increase the island’s target for green energy production.

Anthony has asked Fletcher to increase the government’s initial target from 20 percent to 35 percent by 2020.

St Lucia was one of a group of islands to sign on to the Sir Richard Branson-led Ten Island Challenge, which aims to promote a transition to renewable energy in the region.

St Lucia and other countries are looking to match the progress made by Aruba, which has targeted 100 percent green energy production by the same year, and is already 50 percent of the way there.

In a statement, Anthony said he was “sufficiently convinced” that St Lucia was “capable of meeting and surpassing those goals.”

Earlier this month, St Lucia announced that it had begun exploring the possibility of geothermal development on the island, something which several of its Eastern Caribbean neighbours, including Montserrat and Dominica, have been developing.

The government said it would “intensify” discussions with private investors and developers in both the wind and geothermal sectors toward that end.