Charlestown, Nevis
February 01, 2008
Fifth and sixth Grade students of the St. James Primary School were the fist to benefit from a series of educational presentations to schools on the island on geothermal energy and its benefits to Nevis.
Junior Minister with responsibility for Communications Works, Public Utilities, Physical Planning, Posts, Natural Resources and Environment Hon. Carlisle Powell told the Department of Information on February 01, moments before his first presentation to students entitled “Nevis Geothermal Development ““ leading CARICOM in geothermal development” said the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) had taken a decision to intensify its dissemination of information to the public with respect to the ongoing geothermal project on Nevis. Students would be the first beneficiaries.
He explained that Green Energy and its production of which geothermal is a part and wind energy in which Nevis would be involved in would be new to the island and therefore education on about the process was essential to Nevisians.
He explained that Green Energy and its production of which geothermal is a part and wind energy in which Nevis would be involved in would be new to the island and therefore education on about the process was essential to Nevisians.
“We have to make every effort to educate the general public starting of course with the students who will tell their parents and making sure that everybody is aware of what is happening in Nevis,” he said.
Mr. Powell said the Administration was of the view that the time was right to begin to intensify the information disseminated to the general public with respect to the geothermal project in Nevis and had decided to begin at the island’s schools.
“I had a very kind invitation from teacher Janice Whitteker at the St. James primary School to come to speak to the fifth and sixth grades about the geothermal project in Nevis and I very quickly and kindly consented to come to speak to the students,” the Minister said.
He explained too that West Indies Power Limited, the company contracted to harness the geothermal energy on the island would also be engaged in its own public relations activities in relation to the project.
Meantime, Mr. Powell who recently returned from a geothermal conference in Miami noted that his announcement at the meeting that drilling work had commenced in Nevis for geothermal energy met with a spontaneous applause from participants.
The Minister explained that Windward Power Ltd. a company involved in the wind power energy had received the NIA’s nod of approval to produce up to 1mega watt of wind energy in its first phase of operations.
Notwithstanding, Mr. Powell described the geothermal project as an exciting one for Nevis
“The geothermal project is extremely exciting. They [West Indies Power Nevis Ltd.] are looking at the possibility of producing very quickly within the next 18 months 50 mega watts of power. To put that in context, Nevis only uses 9 -10 mega watts of power. So it means that we are sitting on the exciting prospect of being able to sell energy to the neighbouring islands starting of course with St. Kitts and the energy that will necessitate a fuel surcharge on the bill.
“To put that in context, it means that once we find the geothermal energy, once we get the wind energy we will be able to sell energy to our consumers cheaper than it is being sold for at the present moment using diesel fuel,” he said.