Montserrat Geothermal project site. (File photo Montserrat Reporter)
DAVY HILL—Premier Donaldson Romeo, the head of government business, is hoping for spin-offs from local geothermal energy production, he announced during a telephone interview from Miami with ZJB Radio on Wednesday morning. Premier Donaldson said the geothermal product would create the environment necessary for investments on the island.
The Premier’s statements follow his attendance of an investment forum in the United States late last week. He gave his informed opinion that the extra electricity and bi-products of the geothermal production exercise, should attract industries and create much needed foreign exchange.
“In the very area are where the production would be located, there is a possibility for companies who use the scheme to exist side by side, take advantage of that extra scheme that is going to be wasted. But in addition to that I think what excites me most is that at present we are shipping out tons and tons of aggregate, the base for cement based products and I look forward to the day when we will be shipping out products where we add value to this massive tonnage of materials that come out of the volcano. For instance if we were to do cement boards—the boards we use in the bathrooms and wooden structure and wherever, sheet rock type material—imagine sending a badge out loaded with that material how much more value would have been added and how much employment would be created,” the honourable Premier Donaldson Rome concluded.
Funded by the UK govt. the island is preparing for the drilling of a third well in its quest to develop geothermal energy. According to statements made to the media last year by Martin Dawson, local representative of the UK Department for International Development (DFID), EC$17.6 million (US$ 6.5 million) has been allocated for the project, which is intended to develop the potential yield of geothermal energy available on island.
The current project involves the ongoing exploration and it is still within the government’s purview to find potential investors to manage the generation and sale of the energy. In 2013, two other wells were drilled and evaluations concluded that the maximum yield would be about 1.5 MW per well.
The plan given the green light since last October was delayed as Government sought to acquire the lands. The new well is to drill to about 2,500 metres in depth with a final completion diameter of 8 ½ inches in the St Georges Hill area. It is hoped that along with the geothermal power plant, the three drilled wells will provide between 2-5 MW of electricity to Montserrat.
In early 2014 DFID hosted a geothermal workshop which brought together stakeholders from a wide cross-section of the public to include students to raise the awareness of the processes involved in geothermal exploration, as well as the spinoffs that can derive from the geothermal production. Montserratian Dr. Ryan and Dr Bridget Lyn facilitated the workshop.
