Minister leaving decision on PV farm to ‘technical officials’

Minister of Energy and Business Development Senator Lisa Cummins says she is confident that the authorities will make the right decision, in light of a study that has pointed to possible negative impacts a proposed multi-million dollar solar farm in Fairy Valley, Christ Church could have on surrounding areas, including the Grantley Adams International Airport.
According to reports in another section of the media, an environmental scoping study prepared by Stantec Consulting Caribbean Ltd for the Barbados National Oil Company (BNOCL), recommended a series of measures to mitigate potentially harmful impacts from the proposed five megawatt solar photovoltaic project.
Among other things, the report recommends that measures are taken to ensure that the airport is not affected by electromagnetic and radar interference and visibility obstruction for air traffic controllers and pilots who are landing aircraft.
When asked about the plans for the approximately $12 million proposed solar PV farm in light of the report and why the Fairy Valley location was chosen in the first place, Cummins said she was not in a position to comment on the report.
However, the Senator, who was Minister of Tourism and International Transport up until the end of October last year, indicated that the “glint and glare study” was commissioned while she held that portfolio.
“I haven’t seen the study. So I wouldn’t be in a position to speak to that just yet,” said Cummins.
“Having not seen what the study actually concluded and what the recommendations were, it would be inappropriate to speak on the specifics of it, but . . . I can only say that the technical officials will make the best decisions on the basis of those recommendations by the officials who are skilled in that area,” she said.
According to the report, the modelling software used for the study predicted that sections of the airport would be most exposed to glare from the panels at the proposed Fairy Valley, Christ Church PV site.
“Consideration should be given to optimising (and possibly removal of some panels) . . . to minimise glare impacts; the focus of the optimisation should be to eliminate the potential glare effects at the cabin level of the Air Traffic Control Tower” it said.
It is proposed that the project would have some 14 520 ground-mounted solar PV panels.
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