A new 4.2 megawatt solar farm will provide up to 5% of the US Virgin Islands’ power needs during daylight hours.
Last week, the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority and Main Street Power Company held a commissioning ceremony for the facility, located in Estate Donoe on St. Thomas.
“We are one of a handful of islands in the Caribbean region that can proudly say that we no longer depend on 100% fuel oil to generate electricity for our residents and businesses,” said WAPA Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director Hugo V. Hodge, Jr. “Our efforts continue to complete the propane fuel conversion in both districts and we will continue to add solar, propane and other fuel types along with some wind and biomass as is feasible.”
The Estate Donoe solar farm will generate clean electricity under a 25-year solar power purchase agreement (solar PPA) with Main Street Power, which will also manage the operations and maintenance of the facility for the duration of the agreement.
Last year, the Estate Spanish Town Solar Facility at mid-Island on St. Croix commenced operations. The 4MW facility connects directly to the Willocks Substation and its solar panels are producing more than 8,500,000 kilowatt hours of clean electricity annually, enough to power approximately 1800 USVI households.
Up until recently, the USVI was almost 100 percent dependent on imported oil for electricity generation and residents were paying up to five times compared to mainland electricity customers.
In 2012, a goal was set to reduce use of fossil fuels by 60 percent in the next 15 years.
In terms of solar, six power purchase agreements have been negotiated for 18 MW of capacity in total under the territory’s energy roadmap. The National Renewal Energy Laboratories estimates 12 MW to 33 MW of potential utility-scale wind energy could also be deployed, assuming the possibility of siting 10 to 20 wind turbines with rated capacities of greater than 1 MW each.
Because of the nature of the USVI’s electricity infrastructure, wind and solar will comprise no more than 15 – 25% of the Island’s energy mix.
According to WAPA, a quarter of the Authority’s oil-fired power plants will have been converted to use propane to generate electricity by the end of the first quarter of this year.
The U.S. Virgin Islands are in the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 60 km east of Puerto Rico. The total land area of the territory is 346.4 square kilometers and is home to more than 100,000 people.
