The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The firm at the centre of the Renward Wells Letter of Intent (LoI) controversy yesterday said it had made “significant headway” in its efforts to ultimately develop a waste-to-energy plant at the New Providence landfill.

J.P Michelson, Stellar Energy’s chief operating officer, implied that the company was effectively waiting on the ‘green light’ from the Government to proceed with its plans.    

    “We have been very busy. We have made quite a bit of headway,” he said.  “We are just waiting right now on the Bahamas Investment Authority to convene a meeting, and once that is done we will move forward.

“I know that the Department of Environmental Health Services has requested for Stellar to have access to the landfill so we can do our studies. Once we have these results back, which will take quite some time, we will be able to actually put a price tag on the plant itself,” he added.

“We are doing this in close collaboration with the Government of the Bahamas, and the ultimate goal is to have this waste-to-energy plant completely owned by Bahamians. We’re just waiting for the BIA to get back to us. Once we hear from them we will move forward.”

Mr Michelson said the company wants to carry out FEL(front end lead) studies at the New Providence landfill, adding that its plans in no way conflict with the operations of the site’s new manager, Renew Bahamas.

“Renew Bahamas is doing recycling. We are not into recycling. We will take whatever trash is available as long as we can have 1,500 metric tons per day to fuel our plant,” he added.

“As a matter of fact, most of the material Renew Bahamas is recycling is not a very good fuel source because they have a very low BTU value and they burn very quickly. There is enough room for everyone. There is no need for people to get antsy. Renew Bahamas is doing a good job. The situation at the landfill has improved.”

    Gerhard Beukes, Renew Bahamas’ chief executive, told Tribune Business yesterday it had not had any communication with the Government to-date on allowing Stellar access to the landfill.

“We have not heard from Stellar, and the Government has never brought this up with us,” he said.

“We work with the Government. As far as we are concerned the party in control of the landfill is the Government. If we get directions to say we must work with Stellar Energy to do landfill tests then we will do that.”

    Mr Michelson said yesterday that the Ministry of Environmental Health was setting up a meeting between Stellar and the new BEC manager, PowerSecure.

He explained that Stellar’s goal was to ultimately construct a 75 megawatt (MW) waste-to-energy plant to sell cheaper power to BEC.

Mr Michelson asserted that it was possible to reduce the cost of energy in the Bahamas by 40 per cent, as anticipated by the Government, although that would likely be achieved though a mix of fossil fuels and renewables.

“It will take us about five months to complete FEL 2 and FEL 3. Once we start going into the building phase it will take us a minimum of 24 month to get the plant operational,” he added.

“As a business you can’t do anything, as a foreign entity, without the approvals of the Bahamas Investment Authority and the National Economic Council. You can work towards it, but once you get to a certain point you need to make sure that the BIA is fully on-board and understands what you are doing.”

    Mr Michelson said Stellar has spent $2.5 million to-date. “For the next step, for FEL 2 and FEL 3, it’s going to be an extreme amount of money,” he added.

“I do not want to put an actual number on it but it will be tens of millions of dollars, because that includes all the plans and engineering. It’s expensive.”

Mr Michelson said that while Stellar has secured $650 million in financing for the 75 MW waste-to-energy plant, that number could decrease.

“We are going to need about 400 people to run this facility. We need Bahamians to get properly trained  into the management and running of the plant. I’m not talking about jobs, I’m talking about careers here. Two thousand construction jobs is great but they will disappear as soon as the plant is constructed,” he said.