[dropcap]C[/dropcap]harlin Bodley, energy officer in the Ministry of Infrastructure, Ports and Energy informed the crowd of locals at the Castries Constituency Council on Friday March 16, “The electricity sector remains of great concern, as we are almost 100% dependent on fossil fuel. We are also burdened by the relatively high cost of electricity. This erodes our competitiveness as a small island developing state and as a country, which depends so heavily on tourism.” These are some of the reasons why Saint Lucia is considering a geothermal energy resource. Bodley is one of several ministry officials involved in the Saint Lucia Geothermal Resource Project which is now at the public consultancy phase of geothermal exploration.
Geothermal energy is heat energy that is generated from the Earth, a significant portion of which is generated near the tectonic plate boundaries where seismic activity takes place. Drilling into the Earth’s surface deep enough to reach a reservoir of heat energy accesses geothermal energy and fluids.
“Geothermal energy,” according to Bodley, “like diesel, has the capacity to provide energy 24/7.” The energy security and independence geothermal energy will provide is one of the reasons why this present government is focusing on it as an alternative to fossil fuels.
“We are home to several indigenous renewable sources of energy,” said Bodley. But solar and wind energy both rely on climatic conditions which are unpredictable. Geothermal energy is a more dependable resource because it is constant and “has the ability to provide long term base load power (30 megawatts)”.
Geothermal energy is also being pursued because Saint Lucia is one of the 195 signatories to the Paris Agreement which focuses on mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. Although Saint Lucia’s emissions are “miniscule”, according to Bodley, “Saint Lucia joins with the rest of the world.”
She stated: “As part of our commitment to that agreement, Saint Lucia has communicated its commitment to producing 35% of its total electricity from renewable resources by the year 2025 and 50% by 2030. That commitment also specifically states that we will do so through a mix of three technologies including wind, solar and geothermal energy.”
As many people expressed at the meeting last Friday, “geothermal” is something we’ve been hearing since 1951. However, Bodley and other officials assured that the usually lengthy process still has a long way to go.
Presently the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) to begin geothermal exploration has been completed. The overall report shows that there will be minimal effects during the exploration phase on sites that will be chosen. The findings report is available to the public on the Government of Saint Lucia’s website.
The next step is “to submit the application within the World Bank system to get approval to do all this”, according to Mark Lambrides of the World Bank. He stated, “We’ve completed the surface studies and we’re getting ready to consider the drilling exercise.” This application is aimed for submission in November 2018.
How will a “broke” government fund this exploration phase? The Government of Saint Lucia has collaborated with the World Bank for financing this phase. Lambrides is a senior energy specialist at the World Bank.
He said, “That phase of exploration drilling is rather risky financially and so, to keep costs low, you don’t want to take huge risks with the exploration phase.” The risk is associated with the fact that exploration may not be successful, allowing no avenue to get a return from the investment.
Lambrides continued, “In collaboration with the Government of Saint Lucia, we’ve raised money within an international system. All those funds with a combination of grants and contingent grants (they only turn into a loan if you are successful) will be used for the exploration phase.
“By doing this in a concessional way, the idea is to reduce the risk, reduce the cost so that eventually, when you get to power production, then you will have lower cost of electricity stemming from geothermal.”
