Cahill Energy has signed a 30-year contract with the Government of Barbados to build and operate a waste to energy plant that could provide up to a quarter of the island’s total energy needs.
Cahill said it expects to invest ‘up to $240 million’ in the proposed plant which would use plasma gasification technology supplied by Westinghouse Plasma Corporation, owned by AlterNRG.
The facility, with an estimated capacity of 650-tonnes/day of solid waste, is planned for Vaucluse, St Thomas.
"This Waste to Energy project is a major step to put Barbados firmly on the way to its initial target of replacing by 2029, 29% of its oil based electricity by generation from renewable and alternative energy," said Darcy W. Boyce, Minister of Energy.
"Indeed, this project will help Barbados significantly to reach this target ten years earlier than planned."
In addition to providing up to 25% of Barbados’s total energy needs, the new plasma gasification plant is expected to reduce the cost of energy on the island ‘substantially.’
Cahill is being advised on the project by international law firm Taylor Wessing, an adviser in the alternative energy sector.
