Dominica moving closer to geothermal energy Douglas says

File photo of geothermal testing in the Roseau Valley

Energy Minister, Ian Douglas, has said that Dominica is moving closer to harnessing geothermal energy.

In a recent statement to observe the end of the year, Douglas revealed that the Dominica Geothermal Company has been registered, and planning of the power plant is progressing.

He also highlighted that the project has garnered support from several countries.

“We are moving ever closer to the vision of realizing power from our geothermal resources. The Dominica Geothermal Company has been duly registered, and plans for the construction of the power plant are progressing satisfactorily,” he stated. “The government has invested further $15-million into this phase of the project. And we have commitments from our friends in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, and the World Bank, to assist us with the completion of this project.”

This follows a decision made by the Government to run the geothermal project as a company solely owned by the government and people of Dominica. US$15-million was to be invested into the geothermal company with funds from the Citizenship by Investment Programme.

This venture, Douglas explained, will be pursued to “ensure that the vision of a prosperous, peaceful and just Dominica is successfully attained.”

The government has spent over $50-million exploring the island’s geothermal potential but there have been complaints in some quarters that the project has been placed on the back burner.

In September 2016, Dominica and New Zealand signed an EC$4-million Partnership Agreement to support the construction of a 7 MW geothermal power plant on the island.

In June 2016, during a visit to Dominica, UK’s Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of International Development, Baroness Sandip Verma, urged the government to “get on” with the much talked-about project, saying it should not be “left to be on the back burner for a long time.”

In April 2016, Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit emphasized the government’s commitment to the harnessing and development of geothermal energy in Dominica.

In March 2015, Energy Minister Ian Douglas said that a draft Geothermal Bill, which will govern the exploration, development and exploitation of power that will be generated from the country’s geothermal resources, is nearing completion.

Douglas said a construction of a small geothermal plant is to begin by 2017.

In 2012 former Energy Minister, Rayburn Blackmoore, said construction of a geothermal plant would begin in the first quarter of 2013.

Also in 2012, Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit, told parliament that Dominica could have a geothermal power plant in operation by 2014.

Copyright 2012 Dominica News Online, DURAVISION INC. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed.

Disclaimer: The comments posted do not necessarily reflect the views of DominicaNewsOnline.com and its parent company or any individual staff member. All comments are posted subject to approval by DominicaNewsOnline.com. We never censor based on political or ideological points of view, but we do try to maintain a sensible balance between free speech and responsible moderating.

We will delete comments that:

  • contain any material which violates or infringes the rights of any person, are defamatory or harassing or are purely ad hominem attacks
  • a reasonable person would consider abusive or profane
  • contain material which violates or encourages others to violate any applicable law
  • promote prejudice or prejudicial hatred of any kind
  • refer to people arrested or charged with a crime as though they had been found guilty
  • contain links to "chain letters", pornographic or obscene movies or graphic images
  • are off-topic and/or excessively long

See our full comment/user policy/agreement.

11 Comments

  1. Fresh
    January 1, 2017

    Might just be time for a change next election, shuffle the deck a bit. I grow up hearing promises upon promises until now I am convinced that I must be a fool. Promise of international Airport and roads until after maybe 25 years some sort of roads came to us (getting good share of damage from rains but roads). The airport talk suspect is going to pick up soon. Roseau talk still talking, hospital still waiting, geothermal still promising. What all these talks tell us is that the politicians know and have known for decades the plight of the Dominican people and have not done anything to assist.
    So many of us are leaving the country and those who stay, some try to help and others through frustrations only seem to make things worse.

  2. Elsbeth Smith
    December 31, 2016

    What a beautiful place Dominica is…..and how frightening to observe how the geothermal people could move into Trafalgar like that and build such a frightening place, complete with loud drilling, future knows what will happen…. in the middle of a village. Call me the Manicou. :cry:

  3. The Darkness
    December 30, 2016

    Still a very inefficient and dangerous way to collect energy…

    I would share other ways, only to be treated like Tesla again… foolish people do stupid $h!*

  4. ye yep
    December 30, 2016

    Typical tactic
    Push a Red Herring story to distract people from the real embarrassment: the Silver Lake fiasco!

  5. B VIDAL
    December 29, 2016

    every day in my Island is ALFOOLS day

    \

  6. Same old same old
    December 29, 2016

    Same old familiar lies and gimmicks we heard of during the 2014 elections are resurfacing again! Is this sign that there will be an election in 2017 ?

  7. Shameless
    December 29, 2016

    Goethe WHO? :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

    I wonder who getting the kickbacks from all that money spent so far? Until such time that another government takes over and investigate this who geothermal shenanigan I have no interest or hope anything will come out of that money dumping ground. Ask outrformer UN ambassador about that and see how far away he will run without tunning back :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

    Always Assertive! :twisted:

  8. Tjebe fort
    December 29, 2016

    Yes Ian, things getting hot in Dominica. I can smell the sulphur already.

  9. john3 16
    December 29, 2016

    A pie in the syk

  10. Shaka Zulu
    December 29, 2016

    Breaking news, we are all one day closer to the day we take our last breath.

  11. Jenny Boyd-Teler
    December 29, 2016

    Funny :)

Post a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

:) :-D :wink: :( 8-O :lol: :-| :cry: 8) :-? :-P :-x :?: :oops: :twisted: :mrgreen: more »

 characters available