BELCOGEN says power plant project ready to start
At sixty-one million U.S. dollars it’s the largest single private sector investment in the nation’s history … and today Belize Sugar Industries announced that its power generation project is fully financed and ready to break ground. According to a press release from Belize Cogeneration Energy Limited, known as BELCOGEN, the final financial arrangements have been completed with a group of four international financial institutions who will be lending the company over thirty-five million U.S. dollars to complement the twenty-six million already raised by B.S.I. This afternoon news Five spoke to BELCOGEN’s project director Richard Harris, who says the thirty-one point five megawatt bagasse-fired plant will be a model for the region.
Richard Harris, Project Director, BELCOGEN
“The power plant project really does mark a significant development in the energy sector for Belize. We’re using a renewable energy source here. We’re seeking to mitigate the effects of fossil fuel prices and also the use of fossil fuel energy with it’s implication for carbon in the atmosphere. So we have a renewable energy project here that I think will become quite a showcase for other potential projects in the Caribbean and as such I think it will generate quite a bit of interest.”
“B.S.I. is obviously making a substantial investment in this project. We’re now looking at a two year timeline for the construction of the power plant. Obviously in any investment like this, when you’re involved with international banks, it’s the banks that will effectively get repaid first but it obviously expands the asset base of Belize Sugar Industries considerably.”
Stewart Krohn
“Looking at the effect on the cane farmers – the raw material for the plant is the bagasse which is derived from sugar cane – will the BELCOGEN project affect the returns or the split of the sugar sales that go back to cane farmers?”
Richard Harris
“No, it won’t affect the payment to cane farmers. Our contract is between BELCOGEN and B.S.I.; B.S.I. has their arrangements with the cane farmers.”
Stewart Krohn
“Right now the Tower Hill Sugar Factory spews out an awful lot of black ash during the grinding season. Presumably, the burning of bagasse by BELCOGEN will put more pollutants into the air. What steps are you taking to minimize the negative environmental effects?”
Richard Harris
“Actually it’s the exact opposite. BELCOGEN is designed to significantly reduce the environmental footprint of the B.S.I. group in Belize. The power plant will installed electrostatic precipitators to dramatically reduce the flash that is currently sometimes a problem. And because our financiers are international financiers we have accepted to sign up to various environmental standards that accord really with world bank environmental standards for power stations so that the environmental performance will be meeting the world bank standards.”
The lending consortium includes the Caribbean Development Bank, Inter-American Investment Corporation, F.M.O. of the Netherlands, and C.I.F.I., a Washington D.C. based banking group. Like the Chalillo Dam, the plant will be built by a contractor from the People’s Republic of China, with completion slated for 2009. BELCOGEN will sell electricity to B.E.L. under a long-term power purchase agreement. According to BELCOGEN, its plant will supply twenty percent of the nation’s electricity needs.
