A change in land ownership in St Lucy has thrown some doubt on Barbados Light & Power’s (BL&P) proposed wind turbine project.
BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY has learnt that BL&P was now in discussions with the new land owner at Lamberts East, St Lucy, as they try to move closer to setting up a wind farm in that parish.
The proposed development was approved last December, almost six years after BL&P applied for permission from the Town and Country Planning Department to set up the wind farm.
However, BL&P chief marketing officer Stephen Worme said that while the company awaited a decision on its application, ownership of the land changed.
He also said a memorandum of understanding for leasing the land had been signed with the previous owners but had expired.
“Having gotten permission from the Town and Country Planning Department, we then re-entered discussion with the new land owners for the use of the land. So those discussions are still ongoing. Until that is finalized, we would not be able to move to the next step,” he said.
The next step, according to Worme, would be to do a geo-technical study that would satisfy a number of conditions outlined by the Town and Country Planning Department.
He explained that pending approval, they would erect a ten-megawatt wind farm. He said the original plan was to use eleven 900-kilowatt turbines which would produce ten megawatts of current. That was six years ago.
“Since then technology improvements have been made and therefore that would have to be assessed, whether we use those size generators or if we use larger ones – in which case we may be able to get greater capacity or we may just reduce the number of towers, depending on the situation,” he explained.
Worme said he was not able to give a figure for the cost of the operation at this time as cost had also changed over the years.
“It will be quite significantly more expensive than what it was because . . . the approval process of application and so forth has been going on for about six years. That had delayed things quite substantially,” he said, noting that when the project goes out to tender, they would know what options were available.