Nevis Children Watch Geothermal Presentation
Charlestown, Nevis
July 21, 2008
In a very interactive session with primary school students, Jr. Minister with responsibility for Natural Resources and the Environment in the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) Hon. Carlisle Powell addressed the status of the island’s geothermal project and told them that Nevis stood to benefit financially from it.
This came on July 17, at the Charlestown Secondary School’s Auditorium during the Nevis Public Library’s Annual Environmental Awareness Programme. The participants aged nine to 12 years, were anxious to learn more about the project and asked Minister Powell several questions including whether Nevis would make money from geothermal energy.
“With geothermal energy, once you start selling to the other islands, Nevis will be making monies from royalty. Royalty is just a nice word for a tax. It’s as simple as that and so (from) all the current that is produced and sold; Nevis will be getting a tax and when you sell the electricity outside of St. Kitts and Nevis the tax is going to be higher so you will be making monies from that.
“The second way that Nevis will be making money is that once West Indies Power Limited (WIPL) would have paid off their initial loans then the Government of Nevis will be expecting to get a share of the profits. So that if they are making $200 million a year, Nevis expects to get a fair share of whatever monies they make so yes Nevis will be making more money with geothermal energy,” Minister Powell said and expressed his joy in the participants’ interest.
