Powering Up Bagasse with Money from IDB

Belize is one step close to benefiting from electricity produced from bagasse, the byproduct of sugar cane production. The inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC), an adjunct of the IDB, has approved a development loan of US$6 million to BELCOGEN, Belize Co-generation Energy Limited.

The loan will be used to build a 32.5-megawatt capacity cogeneration power plant which will generate 27.5 megawatts, a fifth of the country's power supply. It will burn bagasse supplied from BSI whose 8,000 farmers presently discard 1.1 million tonnes of the stuff every year.