Govt Reviewing Hydro Power Possibilities

BY SHARIEF KHAN

GOVERNMENT is taking another look at the possible establishment of a hydro-power scheme at Tiger Hill, up the Demerara river, as it seeks to push the development of alternative sources of energy.

“We are looking at primarily the cost,” head of the Guyana Natural Resources Agency (GNRA), Mr. Winston King told reporters on the GBC ‘Face the Nation’ programme.

“We want to find out what will be the cost if we do it today to compare it with some other kinds of development, say, in the Tumatumari and Potaro basins.”

The Eclipse hydropower project in the Northwest has been discontinued because it “ran into some kind of financial difficulties” King said.

The fresh look at the Tiger Hill scheme is part of an on-going review of hydro-power development and King said the focus has shifted more to mini or micro projects in more remote areas of the country.

Tiger Hill was first mooted by the government of the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) in the early 60s but was shelved by the Peoples National Congress (PNC) administration in favour of the ambitious multi-million-dollar scheme in the Upper Mazaruni later abandoned when government could not raise the finance for its construction.

FINANCE “Finance will always be a problem. We don’t know where we will get it from. If we had it we would do a large hydro-power project now,” King said.

“What we are doing basically for the larger hydro-power projects is to continue with efforts to raise financing.’”

Financing for the mini and micro projects is about 12 - 4M (US) each and GNRA is currently identifying the siting of those.

“We feel we can get much of that finance from a variety of sources that are willing to push the idea of mini and micro hydropower.”

One project identified for Moco Moco in the Takutu has been estimated to cost under $2M, King said.