Latest update April 23rd, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 12, 2014 News
…calls for think tank
President of the Guyana Manufacturers Association, Clinton Williams, believes that there is need for clean energy in
Guyana such as a Hydro Power Plant but believes that there needs to be a think tank on such a project.
He has however refused to be boxed in to supporting the Amaila Falls Hydro Electric Plant in its current construct.
Clean energy, he said, is central to the whole concept of mitigating against climate change. “There is no way that we could take a position that is not consistent with what that means in Guyana.”
According to Williams, hydropower has proven internationally to be the best means of generating clean energy.”
He is adamant that hydropower potential in Guyana should be explored to the fullest and implemented at the earliest.
Reminded that the Amaila Falls Hydro Electric Project was on stream up until recently when the political fallout caused Sithe Global to pull out, Williams said, “I am not going to comment precisely on Amaila but I am going to comment on the need for clean energy and in that context hydro power.”
According to Williams, if it were to be proven that Amaila is the best way to set up clean energy and a hydropower unit, “then fine.”
Asked if he believes that the Amaila Falls Project is the best way to go, Williams contended that he has not done enough work or analysis to conclude that the best means of getting hydropower in Guyana is Amaila.
“I don’t think I want to go in that direction at this point unless I have all the facts.”
Asked to respond to several international bodies that would have already endorsed the Amaila Falls Hydro Electric Project, Williams said, “I am endorsing hydropower in Guyana…energy is central, is crucial, is vital, is the most critical element to allow for growth and development particularly in developing countries and economies.”
He said that if hydropower is the best way of pursuing clean energy in Guyana then it has to be pursued persistently.
Asked about the political will to pursue the Amaila Falls Hydro Electric Project in Guyana, Williams drew reference to the fact that in several countries across the world, there are “think tanks” or a “policy unit”.
These bodies would include all the politicians, academicians and others that would brainstorm the establishment policy direction for the economy.
“I am certain that if something like that were to happen in Guyana then hydropower would have been central to the whole development thrust of this country.” He suggested that such a body, too, would foster greater political dialogue.
Introduced in 2006 as a US$300M project the Amaila Falls Hydro Electric Project ran into a myriad of problems when stakeholders began questioning its feasibility.
By the time the developers had pulled out of the project in 2013 the estimated cost of the project inclusive of commitments made by the Guyana Government had reached a whopping US$1B.
A Sithe Global team had visited Guyana and demanded parliamentary support for the project but when it did not receive 100 per cent support the company pulled out.
Its President, Brian Kubeck, maintained that “a public-private partnership of this magnitude requires a national consensus in order for us to proceed further.”
Kubeck was referring to the fact that the political opposition was divided on the pieces of legislation it had to consider in relation to the venture.
Government’s point man on the project, Winston Brassington, last January, met with the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Natural Resources and had disclosed that Government had started looking at a number of options after the Sithe Global pullout, recognizing that the parties involved had spent considerable time and monies in developing it.
The contractor, China Railway First Group, remains “keenly committed” to the project. So does China Development Bank, Brassington said.
Brassington, the current Chairman of GPL, made it clear that China is willing to step in and “fill the gap” with regards to financing.
Under the financing structure, in the original arrangement, Sithe Global would have been putting in US$152M; IDB US$175M, Guyana US$100M and CDB US$413M.
China Rail had already signed an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) agreement with Sithe for US$506M.
GPL was also set to commit several hundred million dollars as part of the agreement.
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