As the government of St. Kitts and Nevis seeks to formalise and finalise its National Energy Policy, the Energy Minister announces the country’s ambitious renewable energy targets:
Energy Minister in the Federal Government, the Hon. Dr. Earl Asim Martin is hoping that renewable energy services provided in St. Kitts-Nevis will increase 60 percent by 2015.
The Minster shared his objective with key energy stakeholders from both islands on Thursday, April 14 during a forum held at the Ocean Terrace Inn to discuss the Nation’s Draft Energy Policy.
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Dr. Martin said his ministry wants to achieve this goal through a number of initiatives, including the corporatization of the Government-run electricity department and the diversification of the energy sector from an area 100 percent dependent on fossil fuel. He said it is with this mandate that the Government seeks to make St. Kitts-Nevis the smallest green nation in the Western Hemisphere.
“Our first step towards a greener nation was realized in 2006, with the exploration of geothermal on our sister island of Nevis,” he declared. “The exploration stage was completed with great success and promise and the next stages are production drilling and geothermal power plant construction. The island has also seen the installation of a 2.1 megawatts wind generation plant.”
The Minister said the Government had also entered into an agreement with North Star Ltd. to supply St. Kitts with wind energy. The wind farm which will be built in Bellevue is expected to produce some 20 megawatts of wind energy on the island.
The potential construction of a waste to fuel plant and a solar energy plant is also being considered by the Government to produce cleaner energy.
According to Dr. Martin, proposals from Concord Blue Energy on waste to energy projects and Dutch company Gigawatt Global regarding solar energy are in the discussion phase.
Read more in the full article from the St. Kitts-Nevis Observer.
St. Kitts and Nevis has demonstrated firm commitment to their renewable energy goals, as can be seen from these previous related posts on Green Antilles: Consultation on the St. Kitts and Nevis energy policy, Wind energy for St. Kitts, Nevis wind farm officially opened, Nevis Island Administration going for geothermal energy and St. Kitts and Nevis alternative energy strategy.
[Photo: J. Stephen Conn]
