Latest update December 4th, 2024 2:40 AM
T&T Gov’t approves ‘largest solar project in Caribbean’
Kaieteur News – Guyana’s closest Caribbean neighbour, Trinidad and Tobago, recently granted the approval of a 112.2 megawatt (MW) solar project, expected to commence construction in March this year.
The three agreements were signed on January 6 with the country’s project partners- BP, Shell and Lightsource BP, for T&T’s first grid-scale renewable energy project, the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries said in a statement.
This project will be the largest solar project in the Caribbean upon completion. “The project partners signed an implementation agreement with the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, power purchase agreement with the state utility company T&TEC, and a final investment decision,” the Ministry reported.
T&T Minister of Energy and Energy Industries, Stuart Young (second from left in front row) smiles for a photo after signing the agreements with representatives of bp, Shell, and Lightsource bp. Also in the image are other Government officials. (Image: The Energy Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago)
The cost of the arrangement was not disclosed by the Government. It however reported that construction is estimated to take 10 months. The project will be constructed at two sites, one in Brechin Castle, near the Point Lisas industrial estate, and the other will be built in Orange Grove, near Trincity.
The T&T Government said, “The two sites will have a combined capacity to generate a total of 112.2 MW of solar electricity, more than the total generating capacity of most islands in the Eastern Caribbean. This will be the largest solar project in the Caribbean when complete.”
Minister of Energy and Energy Industries, Stuart Young, commended all parties in getting these agreements signed. The Ministry started this process in 2017 with the release of the country’s first Request For Proposals for renewable energy. Since the consortium was awarded preferred bidder status there have been several delays.
Minister Young indicated that many issues were overcome during this time as it was the first project of its kind in T&T. He expressed that now that these agreements have been signed, future projects will come on stream quicker.
He also shared his gratitude to the investment to be made by BP and Shell and shared that this project will unlock great potential for T&T to decarbonise and start generating green electrons which could link to the creation of green hydrogen and other green commodities like green ammonia and green methanol.
In Guyana, the Government has been chasing the development of gas for electricity generation, even as the World races towards the implementation of renewable sources of energy.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in its 2022 Report titled: “Uncertain Times, Unsettled Lives: Shaping our Future in a Transforming World”, has made it clear that power generation through solar has become far cheaper than which is being reported.
In the document which was released on September 8, the organisation explained, “Contrary to the projected average annual cost reduction of 2.6 percent between 2010 and 2020, solar photovoltaics costs declined by 15 percent a year over the same period.”
This means that the price of electricity from solar declined by 89 percent in these 10 years. The report highlighted that solar power generation also proved to be cheaper in comparison to at least two other clean energy options – gas and wind. Despite both wind and gas power also recording a decline in cost to generate, the report maintained solar is the cheapest option.
For instance, gas dropped from US$83 in 2009 to US$56 in 2019 per MWh. Meanwhile, wind power generation in 2009 also declined from US$135 to US$41 in 2019 per MWh.
Despite these strides, the Government of Guyana has decided to pursue a Gas-to-Energy (GTE) project that is likely to cost the country over US$2 billion.
The GTE project has three components – the pipeline to be constructed by oil major, ExxonMobil, and a Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) plant to treat and separate the gas, paired with a power plant to generate the electricity. So far, Exxon has said that the cost of the pipeline could be US$1.3 billion. The cost for the other two plants is pegged at US$759 million.
This venture is expected to generate 300 MW of power to Guyanese once completed. However, this project involves several environmental risks and Economists have been questioning its feasibility since the project cost has increased significantly since the first study was conducted.
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