Montserrat’s Minister with responsibility for Energy, Hon. Paul Lewis, is committed to making geothermal energy delivery a reality for the island:

Hon Minister Lewis … stated that he is committed to bringing geothermal energy on stream for the island, and feels that the potential of a Public Private Partnership (PPP) could be the way forward to make this geothermal energy delivery a reality for the island.

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Geothermal Energy has the potential to transform Montserrat’s economy. As the CEO of Thermal Energy Partners, Bruce Cutright stated during today’s press conference with the media; “Montserrat is sitting on a goldmine of energy.”

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The Power to change – The Montserrat Energy Policy 2016 – 2030 has formalized the Montserrat renewable energy target of 100% renewable energy generation by 2020. Renewable energy, to include both Geothermal and Solar PV energy development is a core part of Montserrat’s Energy Policy, alongside the construction of a new power plant.

It is anticipated that geothermal energy, which has much lower generation costs when constructed, will provide the base load for the island alongside Solar PV, with the diesel providing peak load and back up in the event of geothermal being offline for maintenance or otherwise.

Read more about Montserrat’s geothermal energy initiatives in the full article from MNI Alive.

[Image credit: Bastien Poux via thinkgeoenergy]