Eight Rivers begins work on 37 MW PV plant in Jamaica

Jamaica’s Ministry of Science, Energy and Technology (MSET) has announced on its twitter account that works have begun on what will be the country’s largest PV power plant.

The 37 MW project is being developed by French independent power producer Neoen, which owns a 50% stake in the plant, and is building it through its unit Eight Rivers Energy Company (EREC). The remaining 50% is held by business developer Rekamniar.

The renewable energy procurement for this and other projects was launched by the Jamaican Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) in July 2015. In May last year, the OUR announced it had selected Eight Rivers as the winning bidder. The company proposed the lowest electricity price of 8.54 US cents per kWh. Overall, 19 bids, totaling nearly 500 MW, including 11 solar PV projects were submitted to the OUR.

The PV plant will be constructed at Paradise Park, Westmoreland, and completion is scheduled to be announced within a year.

Once completed, the 37 MW solar park will become the largest solar plant in Jamaica. To date, Jamaican largest PV project is a 28 MW solar facility finalized by Spain-based developer Global Energy Services (GES) in February of this year.

Jamaica’s second largest operational PV plant is a 20 MW solar plant in Clarendon, commenced in July 2015 by Florida-based WRB Energy.