By Prior Beharry
TRINIDAD and Tobago is about to embark on one of the largest renewable energy projects in the Caribbean.
This according to Prime Minster Keith Rowley at the World Leaders Summit on Climate Change in Glasgow, Scotland, on Tuesday.
He said, “We are in the process of establishing the largest utility-scale solar renewable energy project in the Caribbean with a capacity of 112 megawatts, accounting for 10% of our power needs, and we plan to increase this complement to 30% by 2030.”
During the presentation of the 2020/2021 national Budget, Finance Minister Colm Imbert said that the Government has secured two bidders to deliver a 112 megawatts of power from renewable energy.
He said, “We are also implementing renewable energy electric power in accordance with our commitments under the Paris Accord.
“We have secured through a competitive procurement process two bidders who will deliver 112 megawatts of power to the electric grid. Upon completion the project would be the largest solar project in the Caribbean and the tariff now being negotiated would be extremely competitive relative to existing tariffs.”
In August of 2020, then energy minister Franklin Khan said the Government had signed an agreement with Lightsource BP and Shell for the construction of a 150 megawatt solar power plant.
At COP26, Dr Rowley spoke about other initiatives T&T was embarking upon:
- We have developed an e-mobility policy and we are already implementing measures to phase-in electric vehicles.
- We recognise the need to address the socio-economic issues associated with the energy transition and have developed a Just Transition of the Workforce Policy aimed at reskilling, retooling and developing new capacity for a low-carbon economy;
- We are pursuing measures to facilitate investment in green hydrogen to provide green feedstock to our vibrant petrochemical industry.
- We intend to explore the use of industry-generated CO₂ in possible carbon sequestration projects.
