_{(l-r) BEL Andrew Marshalleck, CEO John Mencias sign PPA with BAPCoL – Michaen Bowen}

by William Ysaguirre (Freelance Writer)

BELIZE CITY, Thurs. July 10, 2025

Belize Electricity Limited (BEL) has partnered with Blair Athol Power Company Limited (BAPCoL) to develop a 15-Megawatt solar power generation facility, by signing a power purchase agreement at BEL headquarters in Belize City on Thursday afternoon, July 10.

BEL chief executive officer John Mencias and BEL board chairman Andrew Marshallek signed the contract along with the principals of Blair Athol Power, Michael Bowen and Hilberto Martinez.

BAPCoL first proposed building a renewable power facility in 2013, but it took many years to overcome the hurdles of environmental compliance, financing, and sourcing the solar panels, and the company only began negotiations with BEL for the power purchase in 2020.

_{BEL general manager Jose Moreno}

“This Power Purchase Agreement – one that has been agreed by both parties and approved by the regulator, is a huge success!” affirmed BEL general manager for energy markets, transmission and interconnection, Jose Moreno. “It happened because of hard work, persistence and collaboration,” he continued. He thanked the BAPCoL developers, their colleagues at the Public Utilities Commission and the Government of Belize for their support in the process.

BAPCoL is expected to break ground for the project before the end of the year, in November or December, and the plant is projected to reach commercial operation date within 9 – 12 months, so BEL expects to be receiving clean solar power to the grid before the end of 2026, Moreno declared happily.

_{PM Hon. John Briceño}

Prime Minister Hon. John Briceño also welcomed the partnership, noting that with the growing economy, Belize’s demand for energy has also grown, and climate change has also caused the demand for power to increase in our northern neighbor, Mexico, which impacted our supply of energy from Mexico’s Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) when they chose to supply their domestic customers first, and Belize got shorted out of the equation. The Prime Minister cited the urgent negotiations he had to make with the President of Mexico to get CFE to restore the power supply that Belize desperately needed during the hot months of last year’s dry season.

Belize has also entered negotiations with all the other countries of Central America, proposing for Belize to be able to connect to the Central American grid to buy power. He noted that this would also be an economic opportunity for Belize to sell power to the regional grid when Belize has a surplus of power generating capacity.

BEL chairman Andrew Marshalleck also welcomed the new partnership with BAPCoL, noting that while solar power utilities have been operating in other countries since 1982, BEL has felt the need for Belize to go solar from when we entered the 21st century. He thanked the BAPCoL principals for their entrepreneurial innovation to make it happen.

Belize’s other renewable energy power utility, Fortis, operates hydroelectric facilities at Mollejon, Chalillo and Vaca dams, and had also proposed to build a 10-megawatt facility on land near Chalillo last year. But when the National Environmental Assessment Committee (NEAC) reviewed the proposal last July 24, it recommended that Fortis update its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) “to address outstanding Universal Values and to address other issues raised by NEAC”. The committee also asked that Fortis submit the updated EIA and to hold further public consultations, before the NEAC deliberates on the updated EIA.