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Geothermal Energy Drill Site

Charlestown, Nevis
June 20, 2011

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry responsible for Public Utilities and Renewable Energy in the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) Mr. Ernie Stapleton, described geothermal energy as a resource that stood to revolutionise Nevis.
 
He made the comment at a recent press conference hosted by Minister responsible for Public Utilities and Renewable Energy on Nevis Hon. Carlisle Powell when a public awareness campaign about geothermal and its benefits to the island was launched.
 
“One of the things that people have to understand is that geothermal is a revolutionary resource… We can build an economy using geothermal energy. If you believe that Four Seasons had a positive impact on Nevis, geothermal energy has a much greater impact on the economy of Nevis and people must understand that.
 
“It is a natural resource and it means that we own it so we will get the royalty. Monies will be paid to the government as long as geothermal power is being produced on Nevis. It is our resource and the royalty is being paid because it is the resource of the people of Nevis,” he said while noting that his statement was based on his own knowledge from reading and from what he had seen the resource do in other countries.
 
Mr. Stapleton, who also has a background in Finance, likened the geothermal resource on Nevis to the oil found in Trinidad and pointed to the fact that that island had built its economy on that natural resource which was also extracted from the ground.
 
However, he also pointed out while oil and geothermal were both natural resources, geothermal was there forever because of volcanic generated heat unlike oil deposits which would eventually be depleted.
 
The Permanent Secretary reiterated that the opportunity existed for Nevis to benefit financially from geothermal development, in particular when one considered the export component of the Nevis Geothermal Project.
 
“We have not approached the US Government, we have not approached Puerto Rico in terms of this export, they have approached us and they are saying that they have an interest in what is happening on Nevis.
 
“The potential is there for Nevis to make money because when we export the energy royalties will be paid to Nevis because the energy is being exported from Nevis and that again is added income,” he said.
 
Regarding the national debt, Mr. Stapleton said it was possible that it could be serviced with the financial benefits derived from the export of geothermal energy.
 
“We talk about a national debt in the country? The country can serve its national debt, I believe, using the geothermal energy because what we can do is to develop the economy around the energy. Once you are getting your revenue and you manage your revenue and expenditure, you can reduce the national debt of the country,” he explained.
 
Meantime, Mr. Stapleton used the opportunity to tell residents on Nevis that they should not be fearful of geothermal development. He noted that the NIA had scientists and companies who continued to provide advice on the various stages and processes that will be made with regard to the development of energy.

Related posts:

1. Geothermal Energy To Revolutionize Nevis Economy
2. Leaflet Simplifies Geothermal Energy Project on Nevis
3. Nevis Premier To Meet With Geothermal Energy Investors
4. Nevis’ Geothermal Energy Estimated At Hundreds of Megawatts
5. Nevis Adopts Legislation To Govern Geothermal Energy

Kerry McDonald – West Indies Power

Charlestown, Nevis
February 01, 2011

The public on Nevis will be given an opportunity to register their concerns with regard to the geothermal project on Nevis. Word of this came from West Indies Power’s Chief Executive Officer on Nevis Mr. Kerry McDonald when he spoke to the Department of Information at his company’s office on Tuesday.

“[I would like] to give notice to the people of Nevis about the hearings on the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), for the development of the geothermal power plant at Spring Hill and the substation and power lines that would be put into Prospect from the geothermal power plant.  That will be discussed at two public consultations this coming week.

“There will be a public consultation on Monday February 7th at 7:00 PM at the Red Cross Building in Charlestown and there will be a public consultation on Tuesday February 8th at the Methodist Church School in Fountain. There will also be a call in radio programme at 7:00 pm on Wednesday February 9th on Choice FM,” he said.

Mr. McDonald explained that the public forums were a requirement in both the Geothermal Contract with the Nevis Island Administration, the Geothermal Ordinance and also for the funding agency the Export Import Bank (EXIM) in the United States of America. The requirement would facilitate the further development of the geothermal power project on Nevis.

The consultation will take a formal format on the EIA that was filed in December with Premier of Nevis Hon. Joseph Parry and the EXIM Bank.  Copies of the document have since been made available for public viewing at the Charlestown Public Library, the Department of Planning and it has also been posted on the bank’s website.

Mr. McDonald said there would be a full complement of persons on hand to answer questions from the public.  He noted that he would be joined by Mr. Stewart Russell who compiled and wrote the EIA, a representative from the manufacturers of the power plant who will address the plant and its operations and a representative from the drilling company who will speak to the effects of the drilling.

At the conclusion of the consultations, Mr. Kerry said the transcriptions would be presented as part of records to the Export Import Bank, in furtherance of the loan qualification by West Indies Power for the project.

The EIA is filed by West Indies Power but also has to be approved by the NIA and the Bank after which physical operations at the Spring Hill site could continue.

“Once we start the plant will be installed by the end of this year and will be in operation by the first quarter of next year.

“Once the EIA is approved, as is or with modification it is then presented to the Board of Directors of the Export Import Bank for their final approval and that’s the final action to occur. The Export Import Bank’s next Board meeting is the end of March but once the approval is given, that then allows us to start actually doing some work,” he said.

Notwithstanding, in response to a question Mr. Mc Donald disclosed that the geothermal project had experienced two major events that had set it back by a year and a half.

“It took so long for basically two reasons. Reason number one was the economic meltdown that happened and actually we had gone all the way almost to this point before it happened. So that actually cost us a year and a half.

“Then the other fact was there has been a change in the ownership of West Indies Power. The negotiations of the buyout of one party by the other basically took longer than we thought but that was completed in January of this year,” he said.

According to Mr. Mc Donald, the new buyer was Renova Capital Partners, a renewable energy fund based in Denver Colorado. They bought out Antilles Power which was the shareholder that was originally a part of the company.

The CEO said the public should also be mindful of a 30 day requirement after the EIA was filed in keeping with the bank’s regulations.

“March is when you will start seeing action on the ground and the reason is we have to have the EIA hearings. Once the EIA is approved, remember it was filed in December and we had to give it 30 days by Export Import Bank regulations so that’s what basically pushed it back another 30 days. So now our 30 days has passed and we are going to the public hearings,” he said.

Any questions related to the upcoming public hearings should be directed to West Indies Power at 1-869-469-7105.

Related posts:

1. Nevis Geothermal Energy Program Still Behind Schedule
2. Nevis Geothermal Developer Files EIA
3. Nevis Promised Geothermal Power By 2011
4. Saba Eyes Nevis Island Geothermal Project
5. Nevis Premier Updated On Geothermal Project Progress

New Prospect Road Bridge

Charlestown, Nevis
December 21, 2010

After just over a month of inconvenience, the motoring public on Nevis has much to be thankful for with access to the new Prospect Bridge on the Island Main Road. The area was reopened a week ago after a six month closure for intensive rehabilitative work by the Public Works Department in the Ministry of Communications and Works.

The area was severely damaged by extensive flooding in October, during the passage of an area of disturbed weather which drenched the island. Major damage was also done to the roads at Fountain Ghaut, Brown Pasture and Cox.

In a recent interview with the Department of Information during a site visit, Minister responsible for Communications Works and Public Utilities in the Nevis Island Administration Hon. Carlisle Powell said he was pleased with Public Works’ solid work on the project which had saved the NIA a significant amount of capital.

“Not only have they been able to build a magnificent bridge but they have also been able to do quite a bit a bit of work in terms of the drainage which we will probably address later…I want to say that the general public, based on the commments that we have had, appear to be very well pleased with what was done.

“We don’t have the final costing yet. Director Pemberton has advised me that we still are due some bills which are coming in but suffice it to say that I have been told that we should save a significant amount of money based on Public Works doing it as opposed to what we got offered as a tender to do this project,” he said.

The Minister further explained that prior to the project, it was out to tender when Director of Public Works Mr. Raoul Pemberton along with his Engineers presented their estimate and assured that they could handle the scope of works.

Meantime, Project Manager Mr. U-Thant Liburd who was also on hand, gave an overview of the work his Department engaged in during six weeks to deliver the final product.

“This was a major undertaking for the Public Works Department. Our original intention was not to do all that you see here. We originally planned a slab over to protect the culvert that was there originally but when we did our excavation and we got to the culvert that was there, we found that there was some structural deficiencies and in the best interest of the public, we decided, along with Mr. Pemberton, that it was better for us to do something that would be here for the long term. Since we were disturbing the road we decided to just upgrade it one time.

“So what we ended up having is a double cell culvert with a nine feet span. We had an eight foot span culvert originally so now we have more than one and a half times the capacity. This should be able to control everything that is coming from the ghaut. In terms of what comes off the road, we are still looking into what we will do below there because water is going to travel on the road all the way down but this [new culvert] should take care of everything that is coming down the ghaut. It shouldn’t have that problem anymore,” he said.

Mr. Pemberton added his satisfaction with the project but it was not without its share of challenges. He noted that the first hurdle was to address a Cable and Wireless line which ran across the mouth of the culvert but after some analysis and evaluation it was decided raising the culvert was a necessity.

“When we started digging we realised what we expected to be there was not there. So we had to go back to our drawing board and do a total redesign. I think in the initial stage we were a bit unsure what exactly we were going to do. We sat down for a few days and decided this is what we are going to do. So after we got through that first hurdle, it was fairly ok in terms of the work process from there on.

“I must say though, the initial estimate that we had would have been just about $150,000 to $200,000 less than the bid that we had but we have done one and a half times the amount of work that we initially planned, so the scope of works changed initially…We undertook this work in six weeks. We had already plannedd six weeks for the initial plan but then we amplified it and we still were able to reopen the road within those six weeks. So I must commend Mr. Liburd for his hard work. I must also say thanks to the team in general at the Public Works Department they did a pretty good job,” he said.

The Director said though the road way had reopened, work was not complete since there was still some window dressing and remedial work to be done but the free flow of traffic would not be hindered.

Related posts:

1. Road Works on Hanley’s Road Update
2. New Bridge Linking St. Peter’s to F.T. Williams Highway Completed
3. Nevis Road Projects Move On Down The Road
4. Minister Is Satisfied With Nevis Road Project
5. Nevis Premier Welcomes Sea Bridge Ferry