Waste contract's leader 'no threat'

to BEC rivals

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

A SENIOR government minister yesterday said the interests of rival bidders had "not been mortgaged" by the fact that a US firm, which is part of a consortium seeking to supply the Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) with power generated from waste-to-energy, was the frontrunner to win the solid waste management contract for the Tonique Williams-Darling Highway landfill.

Earl Deveaux, minister of the environment, told Tribune Business that Cambridge Project Development Inc had been "told in no uncertain terms" that the Government was not seeking a combined solid waste management/waste-to-energy solution for the landfill.

The Miami-based company, which along with BISX-listed Bahamas Waste and Zurich-headquartered AE & E Von Roll, is part of the $140 million NP Renewables group, which is seeking to win the bid to supply BEC with electricity generated by a proposed waste-to-energy plant.

However, Dr Deveaux told Tribune Business that the BEC renewable energy bidding process and the potential solid waste management contract for the landfill were two separate, mutually exclusive situations and processes, with one not influencing the other.

Although Cambridge's NP Renewables group had "emerged in the top three" proposals on the BEC sustainable energy contract, and was among "the preferred bidders", Dr Deveaux said his main immediate priority as environment minister was to get solid waste management on New Providence into the hands of professional, private sector management.

"What we are doing with waste management does not preclude anyone's interest in getting a deal with the Government for the supply of energy," Dr Deveaux told Tribune Business, adding that Cambridge had been asked to leave the door open for the "participation of other companies and the Bahamian public" in the proposal it was due to submit to the Government.

The minister emphasised that Cambridge and the Government were at the "discussions" stage, and that if the company's proposal did not prove satisfactory, the Ingraham administration would have to turn to others in the private sector.

Dr Deveaux was responding after Cambridge/NP Renewables' rivals on the BEC waste-to-energy bid, particularly the Bahamas Renewable Energy Resources group, had expressed concern that the US company's involvement as the landfill's likely manager would position it as "front runner" on the BEC bid.

Ginny McKinney, Bahamas Renewable Energy Resources' president and proprietor of the Bahamian waste disposal company, Waste Not, told Tribune Business yesterday that while she did not want to be "combative", her group was concerned that their technology was not compatible with Cambridge's, something that would force them to alter their bid if the latter did win the waste management contract.

Dr Deveaux, though, said that immediate action was needed when confronted with a landfill fire he was told could burn for many weeks. With the assistance of Cambridge and additional resources, he said it was extinguished after "just over" $300,000 was spent.

"I was told in no uncertain terms that we needed better management of the solid waste facility," Dr Deveaux told Tribune Business. The goal, he added, was to "reduce the public's exposure" and to get the landfill under "sustained professional management".

In its waste-to-energy proposal, the Bahamas Renewable Energy Resources group said the Government would continue to receive the existing tipping fees of $10 per ton, which it uses to help pay off the multi-million-dollar Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) loan that funded development of the landfill in 1998.

The consortium's facility would also sort and recycle all metals, glass and concrete coming into the landfill, while using carbon-based garbage to generate electricity, leaving an ash residue that it said was only 10 per cent of the volume of the original solid waste.

Bahamas Renewable Energy Resources said the waste stream could support the generation of 20 megawatts per annum of electricity at a price per kilowatt that would allow BEC to make money without any infrastructure investment.

"There would be no cost to government for management of the landfill to sort, recycle and produce power and water, other than Customs duty exemption on the infrastructural equipment," Mrs McKinney said. "As much organic material and food waste as possible would be diverted from the waste stream and composted for fertiliser."

Bahamas Renewable Energy Resources, a wholly-owned Bahamian company, said it would offer shares to the public as soon as the waste-to-energy facility was operational.

The NP Renewables group, though, said it planned to supply 10 per cent of BEC's power needs, creating 500 construction and 35 permanent jobs. The group said its proposed waste-to-energy facility would be capable of supplying 16 mega watts (MW) of power to BEC, an amount equivalent to 9-10 per cent of the Bahamas' daily energy needs.

The plant, which would be located at the Tonique Williams-Darling Highway landfill, would use some 200,000 tonnes of waste being deposited there annually as a renewable fuel source, "replacing over 185,000 barrels per annum of non-renewable fossil fuel oil now being imported at a cost of approximately $15 million at today's relatively low oil pricing)".

Their project, the group said, would generate clean power production from the 89 per cent biomass content in the waste now being landfilled, providing carbon credit revenues to BEC. It would also have a recycling component for the 6,000 tonnes per annum of ferrous metals currently being landfilled.

Published On:Friday, March 19, 2010