Seventy-five thousand Barbadian homes could be powered by alternative energy if a 23-megawatt co-generating electrical plant at Andrews Sugar Factory becomes a reality.
Minister of Agriculture David Estwick said his ministry was “pushing hard” to produce the plant, which would run on biomas from sugar cane and would result in the generation of 150 000 megawatts of electricity. He said such a facility could save $50 million in imported diesel.
Estwick made the disclosure as he criticized successive Governments for the “slow pace of diversifying the Barbados economy” and the sugar industry, in particular, to counter the negative impact of the current global economic crisis.
Chiding planners for their lack of vision during a national consultation on a White Paper On Agriculture Wednesday at Savannah Hotel, Hastings, Christ Church, the minister said: “We never saw that if we went forward and established a co-generation plant from the production of biomas, as we are trying to do now with the transformation of the sugar industry to a sugar cane industry, that we would save $50 million in imported diesel. (GC)
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