The Eastern Caribbean island St. Lucia made an agreement with Qualibou Energy Inc., a US-based company, which stated they should build a geothermal plant that will generate 12MW of clean energy by 2012.
Being only half the size of Los Angeles, the St. Lucia island has a decent infrastructure and tends to attract the interest of many investors. St. Lucia’s government decided to sign this agreement with Qualibou Energy, to keep up with world’s renewable energy trends.
During the past few years, investments of more than $30 million for research and development in the southwestern portion of the island were made. Qualibou Energy estimated that the geothermal activity near the small town of Sulphur Springs could produce about 170MW of usable electricity.
The region’s leaders planned to export about 80 MW of electricity to their neighbor by 2015, thus covering all their development and research expenses. Using such a geothermal plant, St. Lucia will be one of the few Caribbean islands achieving its energy independence.
Like any other project, building this geothermal plant involves financial hurdles. They need to invest about US $60 million, but after everything will be done, Qualibou Energy estimates revenues of up to US$100 million.
