Today BEL is one step closer to being able to produce solar powered electricity on a large scale. They signed the Utility Scale Solar agreement with Blair Athol Power Company this afternoon. The chairman of the board explained that, in about a year, the utility's cost of power should be lower.
Andrew Marshalleck, Chairman, BEL Board of Directors:
"The significance of it is that we all know and all agree that utility-scale solar is the future for energy generation in the country. This is the furthest we've ever reached down the road of actually putting a plant on the ground and we thought it was worth celebrating and documenting."
Reporter:
"Right, so what, no we had the signing today, what comes next?"
Andrew Marshalleck, Chairman, BEL Board of Directors:
"What comes next is that they now move to start building out a facility and it's a 12-month proposition and so by next year you should see a plant on the ground and utility-scale solar being put on the grid and that's a very good thing for everybody."
Reporter:
"Can you compare what it will look like in terms of other sources of energy forBelize?"
Andrew Marshalleck, Chairman, BEL Board of Directors:
"It should be lower and this is why solar is needed because it will exert downward pressure on the average cost of power."
Reporter:
"You already know the price?"
Andrew Marshalleck, Chairman, BEL Board of Directors:
"Yes, yes but it's a unit price and you don't know how much will be produced and you will have better data once it starts functioning to make better projections but projections have been made but it's not that I can tell you what it will be down to the cents. It will be lower than a number of sources that we rely on now so that when you average it together with those sources it brings down the overall average cost of power and this is why we say we need to introduce utility-scale solar into the system if we want to maintain prices at where they are because it brings a downward, it has a downward pressure on overall costs."
