Nevis’ Minister for Natural Resources and the Environment, Carlisle Powell, has indicated that his country is willing to share its lessons learnt from its geothermal development with Dominica.
Dominica is currently in the process of drilling exploratory wells in the Roseau Valley.
Powell made his comment during a visit to Nevis last week by a three-member delegation from Dominica led by Minister of Public Works, Energy and Ports Rayburn Blackmoore.
The Dominican delegation was on a mission to gain knowledge from Nevis’ geothermal development experience.
“We are both pursuing geothermal explorations and it is important for us to share our own experiences with respect to the geothermal explorations,” Powell stated.
“We have completed our explorations in terms of doing our exploratory drilling and we are now ready to move on to the next phase which is production drilling. Dominica is at the exploration stage and so we were quite happy not only to welcome Minister Blackmoore and his delegation but to be able to share experiences in this meeting.”
Powell said the two islands would continue to engage in similar exchanges.
Blackmoore was accompanied by Principal Advisor in the Office of the Prime Minister, Edward Lambert, and Coordinator of the Geothermal Unit in Dominica, Jason Timothy.
Meanwhile Lambert said Nevis and Dominica should become centres of excellence and a hub for training and technical assistance in geothermal development
He said he had a vision for Nevis and Dominica regarding their geothermal resources and they should work to become centres of excellence and a hub for training and technical assistance in geothermal development.
“I have a vision for Nevis and a vision for Dominica in terms of the development of geothermal resources. I see down the road where we should work to become centres of excellence in the development of geothermal resources and become the hub for training and technical assistance to the rest of the entire Caribbean Community (CARICOM) region in geothermal development.
“We have broken ground here today in Nevis on this and I am sure as we progress into the future, the relationship in developing geothermal will become consolidated as we unravel the many issues that have to be dealt with since this technology is new to us. But by joining forces in a sub regional or regional endeavour, I am sure, we would be able to overcome any future obstacles,” he said.
The Committee Chairman said the delegation felt it necessary to visit Nevis because Dominica was in the process of crafting a range of policy decisions which led to its geothermal resources development and the technical issues which needed to be brought on board that would influence and define those policy considerations.
geothermal energy will never be a reality as long as oil lovers …
i hope that campaign will be fruitful… we certainly can use this energy… reduce costs across the board for businesses and the wider population…. i’m just thinking… hasn’t it dawned on us that mr blackmore is always in the news for some development scenario… whereas skerro is always in the news for some corruption business… hhhmmmppphh i think the heads of d.l.p should take note… or will we see mr blackmore shipped to neverland like mr vince henderson????
so long that project on its way. I short freak was talking about it.Get the work done.
how successful is the Nevis project?
I honestly don’t think it is wise to drill in a earthquake prone area and geothermal drilling is know to trigger earthquake that can cause a very expensive and humiliating disaster.
Hmm – It seems we are playing catch up here. I would have imagined that we would have had down all of this knowledge/information aqusition before the exploration team and equipment arrvied on island in Dominica. What about the experience and knowledge from the French in Bouillante/Guadeloupe. Unlike Nevis they have an operational Geothermal Power plant and have undergone resource expansion within the last decade. They have the full knowledge base from resource evaluation to plant commissioning – see http://pangea.stanford.edu/ERE/pdf/IGAstandard/SGW/2010/lopez.pdf
We have been talking about this project now for almost a decade and it seems to me that we are still grappling for a clear decisive technical plan and policy. It is my hope that we don’t have square pegs in round holes on such an important project for Dominica. Historically in Dominica we have a DEVELOP and then PLAN approach that keeps biting us we know where. Hopefully we reverse this approach on this project and PLAN AND DEVELOP!!