Jamaica makes notable solar energy investments

A photovoltaic solar system installed on the roof of the building of HELP Jamaica! Education Center, Kingston 8.

In a historic move, three entities signed 20-year power purchase agreements with JPS to sell 78 MW of renewable energy to the national grid of Jamaica.

BMR Jamaica Wind, Wigton Wind Farm and WRB Solar/Content Solar are the three firms involved in the deal. The investment is done at a value of US$196m in renewable energy market.

Minister of Energy, Phillip Paulwell provided license to these power generating companies.

BMR Wind Jamaica will be building a 34MW wind project, 3km south of Malvern, St. Elizabeth, at a cost of US$90m.

Whereas, Wigton Wind Farm will be investing US$46m in erecting the third wind facility in Southern Manchester to produce 24MW of energy.

 A photovoltaic solar system  installed on the roof of HELP Jamaica! Education Center, Kingston 8
A photovoltaic solar system installed on the roof of HELP Jamaica! Education Center, Kingston 8

In the meantime, WRB Enterprises, through Content Solar, will be investing US$60M to build a solar plant in Content Village to deliver 20MW of solar power.

Together, these three renewable projects are expected to create 300 new jobs during their construction phases, which are scheduled for completion by the end of 2015.

Recently, Texaco Jamaica has been commended by the Government for its initiative to retrofit all its service stations with renewable energy.

The company has invested $5 million to install solar systems in Kingston, and is seeing up to 50 per cent reduction in its energy bill.

The solar energy project will be extended to all 67 service stations across the island by the company.

Jamaica’s proximity to the equator and tropical weather conditions make it perfectly suited for the application of solar energy.

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