Hosororo Creek target for hydropower facility

Renewable energy

– as HECI seeks authorisation from GEA

Region One’s Hosororo Creek has been targeted by the Hinterland Electrification Company Incorporated (HECI) as the site for construction of a hydropower plant. Application for the requisite licence is currently before the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA).
According to the gazetted notice, HECI wants the requisite licence to construct and operate a 20-kilowatt hydropower facility at Hosororo. According to the notice, the energy derived therefrom will be used to supply the Mabaruma Power Company.
The notice also informs that “any person may, within 21 days of the first publication of this notice, lodge with the Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Energy Agency a petition to the Minister, objecting to the grant of the licence.”
Located in Guyana’s administrative area known as Region One, the Barima/Waini region, Hosororo has been touted as a tourist destination. It has a waterfall at which work on creating a hydropower facility to service nearby communities was carried out years ago.
HECI is under the dominion of the Public Infrastructure Ministry (MPI). Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson has only recently provided updates on a number of multi-million-dollar hydro and solar power projects that had seemingly been gathering dust somewhere.
Patterson has also spoken of a US$3.8 million solar farm, to be funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and constructed at Bartica, Region Seven. The minister has indicated that construction of this farm would be completed by the end of 2018.
Meanwhile, the private developer of the Tumatumari hydro project has been given a deadline to reach financial closure with the project’s investors. By the time this deadline has arrived, all agreements are expected to have been signed and conditions met in order to allow for the dispensing of funds.
Patterson has noted that if that developer — in this case the Tumatumari Hydro Inc — proves unable to meet the July month end deadline set by the state for financial closure to the project, Government would take over the project.
In regard to the US$2 million Kato hydropower project, Patterson has said that funding has been secured for the project and work will commence when the weather permits.
He has also spoken of securing funding from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) to establish photo-voltaic (PV) farms at Port Kaituma (US$1.8 million), Kwakwani (US$2.6 million) and Matthews Ridge (US$2 million).

Renewable energy targets
Patterson has provided a breakdown of all the photo-voltaic solar systems they have been installed on Government buildings. Referring to President Granger’s March visit to India to attend the International Solar Alliance (ISA) Founding Conference and Solar Summit, he has said that now that Guyana is a member of this alliance, a line of credit of approximately US$15 million will be available to Guyana.
While it has not as yet been allocated, Patterson noted that the idea is to provide funding to utility scale energy for indigenous villages to the tune of four megawatts.
He revealed that the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples Affairs and the Ministry of Communities will identify these villages. All of this, according to Patterson, culminates in certain targets the Government is trying to meet in renewable energy installation.
“So, by the end of 2018, we would have installed about five megawatts of renewable energy; and that’s a commendable feat, coming from 2015 with zero,” Patterson has indicated. “And then, by the end of 2020, when all these projects would have been completed, there would be 29 or 30 megawatts,” he expanded.
“So we’re well on our way to achieving our target of trying to become as 100 per cent renewable energy-(powered) as (is) possible. So we have made progress, and we’re just about four or five per cent (completed) at the end of 2018, (but) we’ll triple that by the end of 2020,” Patterson had said.