Caribbean roundup: Biomass project, energy policy roll-out, solar study

Malaysian group Raw Energy submitted a biomass project to Suriname’s environment and development agency (NIMOS).

The project entails converting around 900ha of secondary forested land within the former Osembo plantation to a biomass grass farm, according to the environmental and social impact statement.

Harvested grass will be stored on-site until it can be transported to a separate site for processing at a pellet production plant and port facility for shipment to markets in the UK, US and Europe.

Energy policy roll-out

The Cayman Islands’ government published its recently approved 2024-25 national energy policy (NEP).

“Given the overarching target of reducing GHG, it is critical to accelerate the usage of renewable energy from the current 3% to 100% of total electricity generation by 2045. The NEP anticipates utility scale, renewable energy, distributed generation resources (DER), energy efficiency, and energy storage will be significant contributors to achieving these targets,” the roadmap highlights.

The plan also calls for looking at LNG or CNG as a transition fuel, and biofuel blends.

Solar study

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory in partnership with the US Department of Energy (DOE) published a study assessing the solar photovoltaic potential in Puerto Rican brownfields and reservoirs.

“Researchers identified up to 3.3 gigawatts of theoretical solar PV capacity across Puerto Rico’s waterbodies, closed landfills, superfund sites, power plant footprints, and other contaminated areas,” the DOE said.

The solar study along with the biomass project’s summary and energy policy are available in the Documents box in the top-right corner of the screen.