Renewable energy milestone nears with wind farm launch

In a significant boost to Barbados’ renewable energy ambitions, the Lamberts Wind Farm in St. Lucy is set to launch, doubling its initial projected capacity to up to 60 megawatts of clean power. The project marks a crucial step towards energy independence and includes innovative financial models designed to empower local investors.

Energy minister Senator Lisa Cummins said that after a year of intensive groundwork, data collection, and strategic planning, the project is moving forward, marking a significant step in the country’s push for energy independence.

“I’m happy to announce that Lamberts is about to be launched,” she said.

“We spent the last year slaving away on Lamberts, and what started as potentially a 30-megawatt onshore wind project is now potentially being scaled up to between 50 and 60 megawatts of inshore wind.”

She noted that the development was done in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank, expressing gratitude for their participation.

The minister explained that a wind measurement mast had been installed at Lambert’s for the past year, with data collection completed at the end of November. Discussions are expected to continue this week with the entity that mounted the wind mast regarding long-term data collection and monitoring.

In addition to Lamberts, she revealed that another wind measurement mast had been installed in St. George.

“We have a second wind mast up, which we kept a little quiet because we wanted to be able to capture the data… We expect that, with the same learnings from Lamberts, we’re also now going to be in a position to launch a second wind project onshore,” Senator Cummins said.

In addition to its contribution to the island’s renewable energy transition, the Lamberts Wind Farm project includes an innovative financial model designed to empower Barbadians. A special-purpose vehicle has been created to vest all land resources associated with the project, with multiple partners permanently involved.

Senator Cummins also shared that a unit trust model has been incorporated to allow Barbadians, both locally and abroad, to invest in the initiative, even if they do not have large sums of capital upfront.

“We have also designed another innovative mechanism to be able to empower Barbadians and Barbadian businesses and investors,” she said.

“We have incorporated a unit trust model within these investments, which will allow for shares to be allocated to Barbadians who want to come together and invest in large-scale projects but don’t have large sums of capital,” she added, describing this as an empowerment mechanism.

The Lamberts Wind Farm will feature five Enercon turbines and is expected to contribute approximately 3.4 per cent of Barbados’ annual electricity needs once operational. The IFC continues to act as the transaction advisor, and preparations are underway to launch the request for pre-qualifications later this month.