NEW YORK – On Monday, in New York, the Commissioner in charge of International Cooperation and Development, Neven Mimica and the President of the Caribbean Development Bank, Dr. W^m. Warren Smith, announced the formalisation of an EU grant contribution to the Geothermal Risk Mitigation Programme for the Eastern Caribbean. The Programme will facilitate the development of up to 60MW of geothermal energy capacity in up to five countries – Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

The project launched Tuesday  will help geothermal energy development in the five small island states with isolated electricity markets and high dependency on energy imports. They lack the necessary scale to import cheaper fuels, and rely on expensive diesel and heavy fuel oil. As such, electricity tariffs in these states are among the highest in the world. Geothermal energy is heat energy generated and stored in the Earth, and is therefore an indigenous energy resource that would be able to meet national electricity demand. This would relieve these five states from oil imports, by up to 722,000 barrels per year, as well as lower current electricity prices. Additionally, it is a clean and renewable energy technology that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to climate change mitigation.

The €12 million in grant funding will be used to provide investment grants at the exploration phase, as well as technical assistance to support capacity-building initiatives and studies that explore opportunities for, and the feasibility of, interconnection between islands to facilitate the export of electricity by geothermal energy producers.(CDB)…[+]