Tag: Saint Kitts & Nevis

  • Greening Nevis Electricity Sector

    Greening Nevis Electricity Sector

    Nevis, the sister isle of St. Kitts, is on its way to becoming carbon neutral in the near future. The two-island state is part of the Leeward Islands chain in the Eastern Caribbean. The small island of Nevis is home to a population of about 12,000 and it receives approximately 90 percent of its energy from imported oil products, with the remaining share coming from wind power. Nevis has its own electric utility, Nevis Electricity Company Limited (Nevlec), which owns and operates capacity of 13.4 MW with peak demand of around 9 MW and a base load of 5 MW.

    Maddens Wind FarmIn 2010, Windwatt Nevis Ltd. (a private developer) installed a 2.2 MW wind park at Maddens Estate. The Maddens Wind Park, which consist of 8  Vergnet 275 kW wind turbines, supplies energy into Nevlec’s 11kV distribution grid.  Nevlec is obligated to purchase up to 1.6 MW of energy from the wind park according to the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) between the two companies.

    With wind power experience under its wings, Nevis is now pushing to exploit its vast geothermal energy potential. The  Nevis Investment Agency (NIA) is currently welcoming proposals from potential developers with strong financial backing for the development of geothermal. The exploration phase has been completed and it is anticipated that least a 10 MW geothermal plant can be constructed in the not too distant future.

    Geothermal SourceIf, or when, this is achieved Nevis will be uniquely placed within the sub-region as a low cost, stable and renewable energy supplier. This project would have many positive benefits for the island including reduction in the cost of electricity; increase employment; energy security; improvement in the investment climate; significant revenue generation from royalty payments, electricity sales domestically including to St. Kitts and potentially neighboring islands. The project would have strong linkages to other sectors such as tourism and agriculture for heating purposes.

  • Geothermal Potential in the Caribbean

    Geothermal Potential in the Caribbean

    As explained in the post geothermal energy is heat energy originating from beneath the earth’s crust. This heat is continually produced by the natural decay of radioactive materials such as uranium and potassium. According to the US Department of Energy, the amount of heat energy within 10,000 meters of the earth’s surface is 50,000 times more energy than the energy to be derived from all of the oil and natural gas resources in the world.

    The areas with the highest underground temperatures are in regions with active or geologically young volcanoes. These “hot spots” occur at plate boundaries or at places where the crust is thin enough to let the heat through. The northern island of the Lesser Antilles possesses the potential for geothermal sites. According to Huttrer1999, virtually all the islands are underlain by active or dormant volcanoes. The islands of Saba and Saint Eustatius (Statia) of the Netherlands Antilles, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, Dominica, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and the French territories, Guadeloupe and Martinique form part of the active volcanic arc of the Caribe Oriental and the Lesser Antilles.

    From Saba in the north to St. Vincent in the south, active volcanoes and surface hydrothermal manifestations exist on each of the islands. According to Battodetti 1999 Dominica and St. Lucia, exhibit intense surface hydrothermal activity which marks the presence of high enthalpy geothermal systems—230°C at Wotten Waven in Dominica, and 300°C at La Soufrière-Qualibou in St. Lucia.

    The geothermal energy potential available in these volcanic islands makes them of interest for exploration. The majority of electricity on these islands is currently being produced by diesel generators and as a result, the costs of electricity are relatively high. The electrical needs of these islands are growing as light industry and tourism growth increase, and the use of an indigenous resource such as geothermal energy would reduce the cost associated with diesel imports.

    Table 1: Showing geothermal Energy Potential in the Caribbean

    Although geothermal resources are abundant on several of the islands, apart from Guadeloupe which has a 4.5 MWe binary plant, geothermal development is still in the early stages for several reasons. Dominica however, recently signed off on an initiative to construct a geothermal plant that will be funded by the French, European Union and Dominican government at a cost of US $17 million. This project is expected to provide an alternative local energy source, in addition to exporting power to the neighbouring French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique.

    Not only do geothermal resources in the Caribbean offer great potential, they can also provide continuous baseload electricity. According to the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the capacity factors of geothermal plants—a measure of the ratio of the actual electricity generated over time compared to what would be produced if the plant was running nonstop for that period—are comparable with those of coal and nuclear power. With the combination of both the size of the resource and its consistency, geothermal power can play an indispensable role in a cleaner, and more sustainable energy future.