The bidding process for the construction of a geothermal plant in Laudat has been terminated, and the project design to be revisited again. This was revealed by PM Roosevelt Skerrit during his weekly media programme where he stated that the government was forced to cancel the bidding process because contractors tendered estimates that were significantly higher than what the government planned for.
The cancellation of the bidding process and the need to review the design of the geothermal project has caused significant setbacks to the construction timeline, Skerrit said.
“We went to tender for the project and the tender came back with a much higher tab than the funds that we had, significantly higher,” he said. “Geothermal, as you know, as we have indicated, we had all of the funds for the geothermal [project] from the World Bank, from the European Union, from SIDS DOCK; we had all of the funds required for the geothermal.”
Given that Dominica is positioning itself to become the first green economy in the world, PM Skerrit told parliamentarians that generating electricity from the geothermal plant on completion will create greater economic resilience for the nation as well as provide employment for people. He noted that constant electricity from renewable sources is one of the pillars upon which a green economy can be built.
Apart from the construction of the geothermal plant, Skerrit said his government might install large-scale solar PV panel and add this to the national grid for better power generation according to recommendations from the Clinton Climate Initiative and the Sustainable and Resilient Energy Plan (S-REP).
The Dominica Geothermal Development Company Limited in partnership with the Ministry of Trade, Energy and Employment has also tested six different sites for the siting of a UNDP Low Carbon Development Path (LCDP) Project. Ultimately, the government hopes that it’s renewable energy initiatives would position the country as the first climate-resilient nation in the world.
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