The government heading to the market for 268MW of renewable energy shortly
The Government is stepping up its drive to have 50 per cent of the island’s electricity supply generated by renewables by 2030.
In a statement to the House of Representatives on Tuesday, minister with portfolio responsibility for energy Daryl Vaz said on his appointment to the post in September 2020, he appointed new leadership to the Generation Procurement Entity (GPE) with a clear mandate to ensure that it speeds up work on new renewable electricity-generation capacity.
“I outlined clear goals to the new GPE leadership and as a result, an expression of interest (EOI) was launched after several stakeholder consultations in May 2023. This resulted in over 42 companies comprising over 20 local Jamaican firms, with global interest from as far as Mauritius and as near as the Cayman Islands, indicating keen interest in the first tranche of 100 megawatts (MW) of renewable procurement,” said Vaz.
“The GPE received preliminary offers of just under 2,700 MW of renewables of hydro, solar PV, wind and biomass projects. This EOI, a precursor to the request for proposal [RFP], gives me great excitement for the prospect of significant global competition to fill our renewable generation,” added Vaz.
He told the House that other individuals and entities who want to be involved in this stage of the process will have until February 1, 2024 to express their interest.
According to Vaz, a RFP for a second tranche of 168 MW of renewable energy will also go to the market during this financial year.
“With both tranches of renewables, this will move our renewable target to 30 per cent of our installed capacity which now stands at just under 13 per cent, as we move steadily towards our 50 per cent policy goals.
“I commend GPE for their newfound efficiency and look forward to the outcome of their procurement activities,” said Vaz.
The energy minister reiterated that with the Cabinet’s directive to transition from expensive fossil-fuelled plants to mature renewables, the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) will shortly retire 175.5 MW of fossil-fuelled plants and replace them with renewables.
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