By Ben Messenger From Waste Management World

The government of Nevis Island, a small island in the Caribbean Sea, has signed off a deal that will see a waste to energy facility constructed on the island in partnership with Baltimore, Maryland based renewable energy firm, Omni-Alpha.

According to the Nevis Island Administration (NIA), the deal has been agreed between the company and the island’s Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, as well as the island’s electricity utility, the Nevis Electricity Company (NEVLEC).

The NIA said that the agreement was reached following several months of discussions and negotiations.

The partnership will also see the construction of a solar energy farm by Omni-Alpha to support the waste to energy plant and ensure the constant delivery of some 2250 MWh of power per year to the electricity grid on Nevis.

The total overall investment by Omni-Alpha is expected to be $20M.

According to the administration the waste to energy plant will consume virtually all of the island’s household and commercial waste, tyres, plastics, paper, plant and vegetable material and provide much needed ease on the island’s sole solid waste disposal site at Long Point, Nevis.

The NIA explained that with constantly fluctuating oil prices and a population harassed by increasing electricity costs, it embarked on a programme of replacing fossil based energy generation with renewable energy sources.

As part of that program the island has already developed some geothermal generation capacity, and under the new partnership will now embark on adding waste to energy and solar capacity to the island’s energy mix.

“This new partnership signals the further quantum leap forward of the island of Nevis, to become the example for the Caribbean and the world of a sustainable, green economy,” said the NIA in a statement.

The NIA added that as part of the partnership Nevis will also immediately benefit from the provision of two brand new waste collection trucks.

Construction of the waste to energy plant and the solar energy farm is scheduled to commence in the final quarter of 2014 and to come online within 12 months.

The administration said that it hoped the approach will lead to substantial environmental and economic benefits to the people of Nevis as the island.

Image credit: Robert S. Donovan

For more on this story go to: http://www.waste-management-world.com/articles/2014/08/20m-waste-to-energy-deal-sealed-on-caribbean-s-nevis-island.html

See related iNews Cayman story published May 4 2014 “Clinton Foundation to assist St Kitts-Nevis with renewable energy initiatives” at: http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/clinton-foundation-to-assist-st-kitts-nevis-with-renewable-energy-initiatives/