Continued progress is being made in the development of Dominica’s Geothermal plant as two production wells are being completed.
During a media tour yesterday, Minister for Planning, Economic Development, Climate Resilience, Sustainable Development and Renewable Energy, Vince Henderson stated that he was thrilled about this milestone after many challenges.
So far, 15 million U.S. dollars has been spent on the project.
“Certainly we are excited about this new milestone that we have just reached and the development of geothermal energy in Dominica,”
“It’s been a long road, we’ve had many challenges but thank God we are progressing and we’ve picked up steam because now we are testing our second production well.”
He reported that in the next three weeks, they expect to have the report from the consultants who are testing the production well.
“We have also completed the drilling of the reinjection well and that’s the one I was nervous about because that one is critical. We had no reinjection well so this is the missing component to really construct a power plant and now we have tested and we know it has the capacity to do what it is designed for and to ensure that we can run a 10 MW geothermal power plant.”
Henderson stated that the next stage is to move into the construction of the power plant and is excited about what has been achieved so far.
“We have an amazing group of young people who have been working on this project the last several months and they’re very excited to see what they have been able to assist us to achieve,” he expressed.
“We are also ensuring that we do not put a burden on the taxpayers so that we can ensure that the project itself at the end of it will be to the benefit of all and that we’ll see reduction in the price of electricity.”
According to him, this plant will provide an opportunity for Dominica to help to develop new industries, make business more competitive and lift more people out of poverty.
He added that it is also expected that once negotiations are concluded on the power plant it will take two years to complete the plant.
“We are hoping that in the coming weeks, we will step up our negotiations with the developer of the power plant itself and hopefully soon thereafter we can see the commencement of work on the construction of that power plant.”
Work is also being done on the transmission line from Laudat to Fond Cole with the hope that a contract will be issued soon to see its construction.
