This week, experts in the Caribbean are meeting in Georgetown, Guyana, to discuss the agro-energy industry and project initiatives across the region. For Belize, the talk has been about using bagasse (sugar cane fiber left after the juice is extracted) to generate energy. While the bagasse cogeneration project was hailed in 2001 as a very promising income-generating medium for the industry, six years later the project – which was to have been up and running by this year – has yet to get off the ground. The new target date for completion is April 2009.
Because of the delay in starting the project, the cost has risen from US$45 to US$62 million. The project will be undertaken by BELCOGEN – Belize Co-Generation Energy Limited (Belcogen), which is owned 100% by the Belize Sugar Industries (BSI).
BSI’s managing director, Joey Montalvo, explained that the project was delayed because of negotiations with potential investors, but BSI eventually decided to take on the project on its own. Meanwhile, he said, the cost of steel and other construction materials shot up.
BSI borrowed US$35 million to match its equity in the investment of US$27 million. Financing is being provided by a group of international lenders: Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Corporacion Inter-Americana para el Financiamiento de Infrastructura S.A. (CIFI), a branch of the IDB, the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC), and Nederlandse Financieringsmaatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden N.V. (FMO). ING Bank N.V. and First Caribbean International Bank are also backing the project.
China Shanghai (Group) Corporation for Foreign Economic and Technological Cooperation has been contracted to build the bagasse cogeneration plant.
Montalvo said that the usual production of 1.2 long tons of sugar cane would be enough to drive the power plant. BSI has an arrangement with Belize Electricity Limited – the national distributor of electricity – to sell 13.5 MW of BELCOGEN’s capacity to the national grid. The company claims that this would represent roughly 20% of the country’s demand for power.
The total capacity of the BELCOGEN plant will be 31.5 MW, with 4 MW coming from diesel generation and 27.5 MW from bagasse.
The plant will be built right next to BSI’s factory at Tower Hill, Orange Walk. It will also supply energy directly to the sugar factory, but first the factory’s electricity network has to be made compatible with the plant. US$9 million of the total project cost will be used for that purpose, Montalvo said.
The new power source should mean greater energy efficiency for the industry, as they will no longer be subject to the fluctuations in fossil fuel prices on the world market that have been blamed for driving up power generation costs.
Belize still relies heavily on the importation of power from Mexico, but the project will add to the existing in-country sources of power. Over the years there has been increasing emphasis on establishing renewable energy facilities, and in this vein, hydropower has become an increasingly important source of power supply for Belize’s national grid.
Another major project is underway for the construction of the 18 MW Vaca Hydro on the Macal River in Cayo. Vaca is said to be the final phase of a three-dam scheme on that river.
Much of the country’s power supply also relies on diesel generation and a 25 MW gas turbine owned by the Belize Electricity Limited.
The bagasse cogeneration plant would be the first of its kind in Belize.