The St. Kitts Electricity Company (SKELEC), the sole electric power company on the beautiful island of St. Kitts, owns and operates the twin islands’ second largest solar photovoltaic (PV) farm. The plant, rated at approximate 0.5 megawatts (MW), is located on roughly 100m by 183m of land on the outskirts of the capital city, Basseterre , on the mainland Island of St. Kitts.
The project, which was jointly funded by SKELEC and the Government of the Republic of China (Taiwan) at a cost of approximately US$1.55 million, was constructed by Taiwanese firm SpeedTech Energy and commissioned into service on September 8, 2015.
It comprises of 1,976, 250 W mono-crystalline solar panels and 48 dummies panels which displays the phrase “GO GREEN”. The panels feed into seventeen 30.7 KVA, 3-phase ABB inverters. The output of the inverters is stepped up to 11 KV by a 600 KVA transformer, which is connected to the grid via the Frigate Bay Feeder.
Since commissioning, the plant has supplied over 2000 MWh of energy to the grid and avoided the emission of more than 4,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. This energy production, however, accounts for less than one tenth of one percent of the energy produced by other sources of power generation on the Island, according to SKELEC.
The solar farm can be monitored over the internet and SKELEC’s website provides live statistics such as power output, energy output since commissioning, irradiance, ambient temperature, wind speed and direction, and environmental data. Click here to view live data
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