90 / 140
According to a Massachusetts Institute of
Technology study, the earth’s intense heat –
about 5000 degrees Celsius at its core, 6000
kilometers below the surface – continuously
generates an estimated 44 terawatts, or trillions of
watts, of heat. That’s approximately three times
the entire global population’s total energy use.
Picture this: Atiny tropical island, breathtakingly
beautiful, steeped in history, an exclusive
haunt of the rich and famous, blessed with an
abundant source of affordable, squeaky-clean,
never-ending energy that generates so much
electrical power it can export what it doesn’t
need and no longer have to import expensive,
environmentally unfriendly diesel fuel.
This may sound too good to be true, but it’s
a scenario that’s on the verge of becoming a
reality in Nevis, the smaller of the two islands
that make up the federation of St. Kitts and
Nevis, the tiniest independent nation in the
Western Hemisphere. With a population of
around 12,000, this 36-square-mile dot in the
Leewards – birthplace of both the Caribbean
tourism industry and one of the founding fathers
of the US, Alexander Hamilton – is poised to
start drilling before the end of this year for a
geothermal energy plant expected to go into
production in 2018 and to transform the island’s
fragile economy, which currently relies largely
on how many of its 400 or so hotel rooms are
occupied.
The plant’s objective is straightforward: to
harness high-temperature steam rising from a
large, inexhaustible geothermal reservoir below
the island’s surface and turn it into electrical
energy. The steam will be directed through a
St Kitts andNevis:
The Greenest Place
on Planet Earth?
By Garry Steckles
Clearing the Hurdles
88
www.carib-export.com