Above: St Kitts (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Talks are continuing with a Taiwanese firm for the construction of a one-megawatt solar farm at St Kitts’ Robert L Bradshaw International Airport, according to Energy Minister Dr Earl Asim Martin.

The one-acre farm is part of an extended solar initiative by the country in partnership with the government of Taiwan.

St Kitts is also in talks on the construction of a factory to manufacture solar panels in the country, Martin said.

“We are fully aware that fossil fuels cannot continue to be the main resource to generate energy in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis,” Martin said. “We think this is the right direction in which the country would want to move, in providing green energy for the people in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis.”

The Ministry of Energy is also in discussions with the St Kitts Electricity Company (SKELEC) and the Sugar Industry Development Foundation on an initiative that would provide solar panels to customers who are currently obtaining electricity from SKELEC.

“This will do two things,” he said. “Reduction in the use of energy from the national grid and giving those consumers an opportunity to sell their electricity back into the grid and in a sense generating some revenue of their own.”