Above: the signing ceremony in Jamaica (JIS Photo)

By Dana Niland
CJ Contributor

The United States’ Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) has signed a $47 million financing agreement with WRB Enterprises for the development of a 20-megawatt solar plant in York Town, Clarendon in Jamaica.

The project, called Content Solar Limited (CSL), will be the first utility-scale photovoltaic power plant in Jamaica, and will make Jamaica the largest solar energy facility in the Caribbean.

“We do not intend to remain forever hostage to the vagaries of imported fossil fuel,” said Jamaica Minister of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining, Phillip Paulwell.

CSL will help boost Jamaica towards its goal of increasing renewable power generation from seven to 15-percent by 2020.

The project in Jamaica is the second to be financed by OPIC, after Vice President Joe Biden’s launch of the Caribbean Energy Security Initiative in June 2014.

OPIC Chief of Staff John Morton praised the government’s action towards renewable energy initiatives, and said, “you are moving faster than most others, proving that it can be done cost effectively.”

The new solar energy plant was initially announced