Solar power build-out gaining traction in Guyana

The Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) has signed a contract with Farfan & Mendes and Soventix Caribbean to develop small-scale solar photovoltaic plants and associated battery energy storage systems.

The work entails the engineering, procurement, construction, installation, and commissioning of plants in the inland communities of Bartica and Lethem for 1.5MW and 1MW, respectively.

The contract totals 1.1bn Guyanese dollars (US$5.3mn) and completion of both plants will take a year, the country’s Department of Public Information (DPI) reported.

BNamericas previously reported that the government was eyeing Bartica and Lethem, as well as Mabaruma and Mahdia and other hinterland communities for the installation of solar arrays.

GEA recently issued a second call for bids to prepare the environmental and social analysis report for a photovoltaic and battery storage project in Mahdia.

The projects fall under an IDB-financed program to diversify the country’s energy matrix and strengthen the Department of Energy.

IDB also has placed technical cooperation in its lending portfolio of potential financing to support the preparation of an investment grant to deploy a utility scale solar program in Guyana.

THERMO PLANT

Meanwhile, five 9.3MW Wärtsilä units have arrived for Guyana Power and Light’s (GPL) 46.5MW Garden of Eden project which is now nearly 60% complete; commissioning is scheduled for the second quarter of 2021.

GPL chief executive Albert Gordon said the dual-fuel plant will help address the country’s “very slim reserve margin,” DPI quoted Gordon as saying.