Two new areas

By Dana Niland
CJ Contributor

St Kitts is looking to go greener, and the country has two new areas of interest: wind and waste-to-energy.

St Kitts Minister of Public Infrastructure Ian Liburd said officials have had discussions with potential investors in both wind energy and waste-to-energy.

General Manager of the Solid Waste Management Corporation, Alphonso Bridgewater, has repeatedly said that waste-to-energy is a potential solution to the country’s solid waste constraints, as the sanitary landfill in Conaree has outlived its lifespan.

According to Liburd, he has gotten the potential investors to agree to provide a stable supply of electricity, unlike in previous negotiations, wherein investors have sought to enter into a power purchasing agreement for which the government would have to invest in upgrading its power grid that would integrate the energy generated from wind energy.

“We have to establish whether we want integration or stability. So its wind integration versus stability,” he said. “My view still is, and I got the potential investor in the wind farm to agree to that—provide us with a stable supply of electricity. So the burden must be on you [investor]—you are supplying an intermittent resource, then you must supply a stable resource to us so if any storage is required then you must invest in the storage.”

With regard to waste-to-energy solutions, the minister said that there are ongoing discussions, but there has been nothing “concrete” from the suppliers.

“It has to do with what is the cost per kilowatt hour for whatever the intermittent resources and what the expenditure that SKELEC [St. Kitts Electricity Company], which is government would have to put out there,” he said.

The wind and waste-to-energy come as the island is also exploring the feasibility of geothermal energy.