Expressions of Interest Invited to Supply Up to 100 Megawatts of Renewable Energy

An advertisement has been published inviting ‘Expressions of Interest for the supply of up to 100 megawatts (MW) of Energy Generation from Renewable Energy-Based Power Generation Facilities on Build Own and Operate (BOO) Basis’.

Minister of Science, Energy, and Technology, Hon. Daryl Vaz, made the disclosure during his contribution to the 2023/24 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on Wednesday (May 10).

This procurement will seek to increase the current installed capacity for renewables.

“Therefore, I invite all qualified entities to apply. This is the first tranche under this arrangement,” Mr. Vaz said.

Cabinet gave the directive that any retiring fossil fuel-generation plant should be competitively replaced by mature renewables, which supports the thrust to achieve 50 per cent electricity generation on the national power grid by 2030, using mature renewable energies.

Mr. Vaz informed that discussions are also ongoing with established industry experts to possibly produce biodiesel locally, as part of the Government’s ‘green energy’ focus.

The Ministry has earmarked funds from a $33 million spend on policy development banning incandescent light bulbs to include work related to biodiesel.

Cabinet approved the phase-out of standard incandescent light bulbs in September 2022, which became effective on April 1, 2023.

This is consistent with CARICOM’s Energy Ministers’ agreement to phase out the import and sale of incandescent light bulbs within the region.

“Policy development around the incandescent light bulb ban will be further supported from part of a $33 million spend that includes policy development for bio-diesel and Incandescent Light Bulb,” Mr. Vaz said.

The phase-out of incandescent bulbs will ground the development of more energy conservation and energy efficiency behaviours and promote a switch to more energy efficient lighting technologies.