Future of Hope Beach wind farm in hands of developer

Jan 10, 2020 News

It is all up to the developer in the Hope Beach wind farm project to make it happen.
Asked for an update of the project on Wednesday, during a review of 2019, Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson, said that a significant part of the preparatory work, including studies, have been completed.
The developer will now have to complete an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA), and deal with its financing.
The wind farm has been almost two decades in the making.
It is expected to be located at Hope Beach, East Coast Demerara.
Chairman of the project, Lloyd Singh, last year said that the US$20M-plus project should take nine months.
It is expected to produce up to 16 megawatts of wind power which will be connected at Coldingen, to the network of the Guyana Power and Light Inc.
Singh, who owns the International Pharmaceutical Agency, has been pushing the project for a number of years now, but had been mandated to conduct a number of critical studies, including environmental ones. He said that GPL is being engaged to bring closure to a power purchase agreement, which is key to the project.
The project has been dragging on, with little word from the parties in recent years.
Last year, a government statement which signalled the project was nearer to a reality, said that the GPL’s power grid is set to be boosted by 2020, with the construction of a wind farm at the village of Hope, East Coast Demerara .
At a stakeholder meeting last year by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), participants were briefed on the impact of the project.
Leading the discussions then was Project General Manager for Hope Energy Development (HED), Dr. John Sydow, who stated, “We are looking at four wind turbines at Hope Beach. That will supply about seven percent of all of GPL’s megawatt hours, which they are distributing. With 40 machines, you would satisfy about 60 percent of all of GPL’s needs without requiring any energy storage.”
The impact tests were conducted at the Hope Secondary School, located some 420 metres from the proposed project site.
One of the concerns raised by participants during the open discussion session, according to a government statement, was whether the Hope Wind Farm would result in mangrove degradation along the shoreline.
The Hope Wind Farm Project initially began in 2001, but was halted due to GPL’s lack of infrastructure needed at the time.
The project is capable of supplying 7,000 homes with clean electricity, leading to fuel savings of 14.5 million litres per year.
Additionally, 30 to 40 construction jobs are expected to be created, and $1Billion yearly to be saved in fuel imports.

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