The V.I. Water and Power Authority is making preliminary preparations to add utility-scale wind power to the territory’s grid in the next two or three years, according to a release from WAPA.
With help from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the authority and the V.I. Energy Office have been evaluating commercial wind projects in Jamaica, Aruba and Nevis, WAPA said.
In the statement, WAPA Executive Director Hugo Hodge Jr. said utility-scale wind power represents one of the lowest cost sources of energy generation.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory published a study in 2012 evaluating the potential for wind energy in the territory. Based on a preliminary screening of wind resource maps, local input and existing land, the study pointed to the Estate Bovoni peninsula on the southeast coast of St. Thomas, among many possible sites, as a good first candidate for utility-scale wind power.
That site looks good for utility-scale power production when considering wind resource, distance from residences and developable terrain, WAPA’s statement said. Sites on St. Thomas were generally preferred due to its higher overall (and peak) demand for electricity. The case study can be reviewed at www.nrel.gov/docs.
During the last year, the Energy Office has erected anemometers at Estate Bovoni on St. Thomas and on the southeastern corridor of St. Croix to collect the data required for WAPA to issue a Request for Proposal by the end of this year. WAPA will seek qualified companies from which to purchase up to 25MW of commercial wind energy.
V.I. Energy Office Director Karl Knight said in the statement that wind power should save customers money, adding to savings anticipated from switching from oil to propane gas-fired generation and the introduction of 18 megawatts of solar energy to the grid, both scheduled to come online within the next year.
According to WAPA, it expects its development of utility-scale wind and solar projects in the V.I. to contribute at least 9 percent towards Gov. John deJongh Jr.’s goal of a 60 percent reduction in fossil fuel use by 2025.
WAPA, the company that can’t master 1930s-era technology is going to try their hand at wind power.
Good luck.
The only wind power they’ll master is that which blows out of their back side. They are not smart enough, capable enough or efficient enough to make a project like this work . . . even if it COULD work . . . which I believe will not work even if they knew how to do it. They are going to screw up the beauty of this island with fairy tale dust. Stupid is as stupid does and there’s plenty of stupid in this project. Do your homework people before you let these morons raise the cost of energy and destroy the beauty. Do your homework.
I go on record saying that the wind generators should be built near the Senate office buildings as well as the Governors office. Attach big wires to the generators to handle the surge of power generated by the hot air from our Gubberment leadership.
Now THAT’S a plan that will work.
My VI…
Focus all of your efforts with gas (LNG). Yes, the capital costs are high but the return on investment is cascading. Businesses will return, retirees will return, home sales will pick up, new industries will show a positive return (feasibility studies will be favorable), the dairy business will return, and additional franchise chains will find the islands an attractive home to do business. My guess is that the next owners of the refinery will finance a small LNG terminal and regasification plant. They may be able to use the large refrigerated butane tank and loading/off-loading system; located at the east of the marine/terminal building. Just a guess!
cgtstx,
While i certainly agree with you about the probable outcome and have no doubt they will find a way to make it 3 times more expensive than they have to, i think that they are at least DOING SOMETHING. I think, no, i KNOW that the cost of electricity in the VI is out of control and has been for at least the last 6 or 7 years. It’s strangling the bottom line for business and its a real problem for families. The result is that we at the bottom are getting it from both ends. We pay outlandish energy bills at home and at the same time food costs go thru the roof. Gas prices are more than double and that causes real financial problems for alot of folks. Its going to get worse and if they dont at least start to do SOMETHING we are all screwed. im serious. As far as the aesthetics are concerned, it so happens that Bovoni certainly isnt the riviera of st. thomas in the first place. They are eventually going to have to shut down the dump and why not a wind farm? I know its a pretty low bar but its got to be better than a garbage dump. For that matter its got to be better than an oil refinery. Will they screw it up somehow? yes. but at least they are finally doing something.
I do agree with you (Joonbug) on that aspect of thinking, that they are “DOING SOMETHING”. One thing I know of about my VI people, is that most are stuck on the “no problem man” mind frame, gas price goes up, nothing said, food price goes up, nothing done about it, WAPA bills goes nothing done. Our society has morphed into something very ugly. Collectively, if we stood up, and demanded what’s needed to turn our territory around to a positive state of being, I wonder what kind of changes could be attained.
WAPA is not the entity which will build, operate or fund any renewable projects/ programs, so it will be a bit hard for them to “screw it up”, and no, I don’t work for WAPA or the government either. You wouldnt have to worry about our beautiful Island home if wind turbines come to curb the cost of energy we pay, you’ll have to worry about will anyone wanting to come back home to visit, much-less repatriate here, or how many local businesses will continue to operate, or how much more services will get sold-out to the most money. If WAPA is attempting to do something, I say it’s high time they did. Some people just sit on their back-side and complain about everything, and yet not lift a finger or utter a word towards progress. Stop fight progress and get up to the times, we’re so far behind on progress as it is, when will we catch up.
For the naysayers, simply put, if any renewable energy type project were to be established in the territory, and run by the federal government, or insightful investors, energy cost would go down, business would grow, the economy and real estate would pick up again, just imagine that little tid-bit, and marinate it in your brain housing group.
Stand firm.