Caribbean Export OUTLOOK 2016

the amount of energy Nevis uses in a year, give

or take a light bulb or two. Minister Brantley

is also confident that the economic impact of

geothermal will be substantial. He predicts lower

power costs for businesses and homes resulting

in more disposable income, which can be used

for household expenditure on goods and services

or business expansion. Expensive power has

been consistently identified as one of the major

inhibitors to business expansion in the region.

Nevis has already attracted interest from light

manufacturing operations which want to take

advantage of lower energy costs. Expectations are

that this will continue allowing Nevis to diversify

its economy. Another expectation is that electric

cars and scooters could become the main modes

of transport. Nevis is envisaging cheap, clean and

plentiful power being a boost to its important

Garry Steckles is a writer, editor and author who is a regular contributor to many leading publications in the Caribbean and Canada. Steckles, who has held senior editing

positions with newspapers in Toronto, Chicago, Montreal, Vancouver and Barbados, has been writing about Caribbean culture for more than four decades.

tourism industry, with environmentally conscious

travellersgravitatingtowardtheislandasamodelfor

sustainable development and a destination where

the carbon footprint is reduced to nearly zero.

Nevis also hopes to do well from exporting

affordableandcleanpowertoitsEasternCaribbean

neighbours, starting with its sister island of St.

Kitts and then to St. Barths, Sint Maarten, Saba,

St. Eustatius, Antigua, and Anguilla.

The geothermal project inNevis, started in 2004,

is well advanced in spite of initial difficulties.

However the exploratory work has now been

completed and a concession awarded to an

American company, Nevis Renewable Energy

International (NREI). NREI is now in the final

financing phase of the project and the expectation

is that production drilling will commence within

the final quarter of 2015 with the stated intent

for a 10MWplant by 2018. The 10MWplant will

be the first phase, with additional capacity to be

added in subsequent phases.

According toMinister Brantley, “there is currently

no project in St. Kitts, albeit the Government has

stated its intent to explore whether that island

has a geothermal resource.” The expectation

is for Nevis to supply geothermal power via

undersea transmission lines to St. Kitts, two

miles away. Interconnectivity studies have already

demonstrated the feasibility of that approach.

St. Kitts and Nevis, like the other Leeward

Islands, stretching from the British and US

Virgin Islands south to Dominica, are “ideally

positioned” for geothermal energy development.

According to the Chief Technical Officer at the

St. Kitts and Nevis, like the other Leeward Islands, stretching from

the British and US Virgin Islands south to Dominica, are “ideally

positioned” for geothermal energy development.

Clearing the Hurdles