The government has also put out a request for expressions of interest in the development of 80 megawatt solar plants to operate in a public - private - partnership. The PM says it has gotten many responses:
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."
John Briceno, Prime Minister:
"We have a month or two, the PUC, put out asking for proposals. And a number of companies, I don't know who are there, but I know a number of them, they're being reviewed and then after they're going to compile it to the smaller group, because we want to make sure that these companies would be able to, the plan is that once we sign the contract, that they will be able to deliver within one year of energy power, 80 megawatts into the grid. In many instances there's so much work that has to be done, and sometimes it's not just for government to do it on itself, that is when these partnerships, public sector partnership agreements."
