By NEIL HARTNELL
Tribune Business Editor
Grand Bahama Power Company and its 80.4 per cent majority owner will look at every renewable energy technology for possible inclusion in its future electricity generation, Tribune Business was told yesterday, as it currently explores the economic viability of wind power.
Ray Robinson, Grand Bahama Power's newly-appointed executive chairman, said that while data collected over a two-year period suggested the island was "not an incredible wind region", there were signs that it could be economically viable and part of the future energy generation portfolio.
Other possibilities included biomass, waste-to-energy and wave/tidal power, and Mr Robinson pledged: "There is no renewable energy technology that we are not looking at."
He added: "We have been collecting wind data for nearly two years on this island, and have a good bit of it. It's not an incredible wind region, but we think we can economically develop wind power and that it can be part of the portfolio going forward."
Mr Robinson said Grand Bahama Power Company thought it had "found a good one" in terms of a wind turbine supplier, given that the design was hurricane resistant, and was now going through the technical checks and due diligence with the prospective supplier.
"We're overlaying the wind data with our electricity data, matching the right power curve to the wind experience in Grand Bahama, and running financial models to see how we can economically produce wind on Grand Bahama," Mr Robinson said. The company, he added, was still assessing the best sites upon which to locate the wind turbines.
"One of the things we're doing is a long-term system development plan," Mr Robinson told Tribune Business.
Technology
"There is no new renewable energy technology we're not looking at.
"There's a wealth of new renewable technology that may end up being part of the generation portfolio over time.
"We're looking at any number of these."
Mr Robinson said Grand Bahama Power Company's review analysis of these renewable energy technologies was likely to be completed later in 2011.
