Government Looks at Turning Organic Waste to Energy

Ryan Cobb

A workshop was held at the Radisson this morning, as part of an organic waste to energy pre-feasibility study.  The Ministry of Public Utilities, Energy, Logistics and E-governance is at the helm of the project and a second round of consultations was held on the subject.  Ryan Cobb is the Director of Energy.

Ryan Cobb, Director of Energy, MPUELE

“What we’re looking at is a pre-feasibility study with the objective of funding two projects of turning organic waste into energy.  We are looking at various aspects, such as waste from agricultural, from wood processing and even from sargassum, themselves.  The main output of it is not just energy itself, but the actual waste management.  One, it reduces the need to transport these wastes from one location to the next, being that they can be treated at the source site.  Two, it also provides energy for whatever location that they are currently at.  This may be cost effective or it may be used as a subsidy in the collection and disposal of the waste, such as in the case of sargassum which is a possibility.  What we are looking at today is the consultant‘s results of ranking possible sites and we‘d like to then consult with the various stakeholders that we have in the room to have a finalized ranking and to see if we can, at some point in time, then fund two projects.”

Reporter

“Okay, talk to us some more about the sites that we are looking at.”

Ryan Cobb

“We are looking at various things such as complimentary to the ones that we have up north at BELCOGEN.  So that could be arundo donax, it could be other agricultural waste.  Down south, we are looking at the rice farmers, all the rice husks that are left over.  We are looking at wood mills or sawdust, we‘re also looking at different collection sites, municipal collection sites and as well as on the islands with sargassum and in Placencia with sargassum as well.”