Tweet

POINTE-À-PITRE, Guadeloupe — The government of St Kitts-Nevis and Teranov, an engineering and services company based in Guadeloupe, will join forces to establish a public-private partnership, with the ultimate goal of generating electricity by means of a geothermal power plant.

A memorandum of understanding, committing the two parties and governing the terms of this collaboration, has now been signed. This announcement was made during the seminar “Geothermal: Wealth and energy autonomy of the Caribbean – Producing our energy differently”, co-hosted by the Guadeloupe Regional Council and ADEME (the French environment and energy management agency) on Wednesday and Thursday.

This project is a direct result of the energy policy defined by the government of St Kitts and Nevis and the green growth objectives promoted by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) at the regional level. The endeavour will help to develop renewable energy, to decrease dependency on fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions within the region.

Teranov, a Guadeloupe based engineering company, which specializes in geothermal and project development, will analyze the geothermal resource in St Kitts using the methodology currently implemented within the GEOTREF consortium. The latter, led by Teranov, includes nine internationally renowned French laboratories (CNRS, ENS Mines de Paris, UAG, etc.) and three private companies, and is sponsored by a French funding program called “Investments for the Future”.

GEOTREF uses characterization and modeling tools coming from the oil and gas upstream sector to geothermal explorations. The objective is to achieve a better reservoir management and to lower geological risk.

“This public-private partnership will provide a great opportunity to develop the geothermal resources in St Kitts and Nevis. Electricity production from local and renewable resources is critical to the economic and sustainable development of St Kitts and Nevis,” explained Ian Liburd, minister of public infrastructure, post, urban development and transport within the government of St Kitts and Nevis.

“Geothermal energy represents an essential resource for the Caribbean islands: it takes into account its environmental and social potential and constraints. To achieve this, we can rely on the French expertise and regional presence. To date, Guadeloupe remains the only Caribbean island that has a geothermal plant in operation: it is an asset that should be put forward,” said Jacques Chouraki, president of the Teranov company.

The agreement signed between the parties provides for the creation of a joint company, ultimately in charge of the resource exploration and utilization, as well as a roadmap with defined objectives. First phase of the project, which begins October 1, 2015, will focus on geological, geochemical and geophysical surface exploration, and aims at characterizing commercially viable geothermal resource.