Schneider participates in Bahamian windfarms

Bahamas Wind Farms will deliver 30 MW of renewable energy to the grid across New Providence, Abaco, and Eleuthera, with BREC selecting an EPC contractor and targeting operations by late 2013.

Bahamas Renewable Energy Corporation BREC, a joint venture of Schneider Power Incorporated and WINSO Company Limited, is planning the construction of three windfarms in the Bahamas with a total capacity of 30 megawatts MW, requiring an estimated investment of $75 million.

The windfarms will be located on the islands of New Providence, Abaco and Eleuthera, and they will produce 10 MW each, echoing progress at the Borkum West wind farm in Germany. The electricity will be delivered to the local grid, and will be enough to provide power to about 25,000 homes.

BREC expects to obtain permits by the end of this year, while the company continues seeking new investors and noting public sentiment such as the Narragansett survey that can shape policy. BREC is now in negotiations to select an engineering, procurement and construction EPC contractor to develop the three projects, similar to the Rhode Island offshore award seen offshore for U.S. leases. The selected contractor will be announced later this year.

According to the schedule, site preparation will begin in April 2012, and the windfarms will go into operation by the end of 2013, mirroring timelines at the Deepwater wind project off the U.S. coast. However, BREC has not decided if the windfarms will be built at the same time, or sequentially. This will be defined once the detailed design of the projects are finished.

Other windfarms under construction in the region include Matafongo 30.6 MW and Los Cocos 25.6 MW in the Dominican Republic, while the Lameque wind farm is already operational in Canada. Operational windfarms like Oranjestad 30 MW in Aruba and Wigton 48.7 MW in Jamaica are examples of wind investment initiatives in the Caribbean.

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