REITERATING that the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project remains the number one priority of his administration, President Donald Ramotar has said he remains hopeful the mega-project would become reality.Speaking at commissioning of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) power station at Vreed-en-Hoop, WCD yesterday, the President said efforts are being made to restart work on the transformative project before year-end.

He said a lot of work has already been done on the project, and he pointed out that Norway has already transferred US$80 million to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in this regard.

“We have already identified another company to step into the shoes of Black Stone and Sithe Global. We are working feverishly to conclude this arrangement, so that, hopefully, we can start construction very soon,” President Ramotar said.

He pointed out that, through the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) agreement with Norway, some US$150 million of the US$250 million have already been disbursed to Guyana.

Contending that a report in one section of the media that the US$80 million is unlikely to be approved by the IDB until June 2016 is misleading, President Ramotar said, “We have the resources to go in that direction [restarting work on the Amaila Project].” The President said Government is committed to seeing the Amaila Falls Project to fruition, as one of its foremost goals is to provide cheap electricity to consumers.

He also warned that while Guyanese are enjoying the drop in fuel prices, it is not a situation that the country can control, and as such, it will not last forever.
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“We have to take the opportunity available to try to ensure that, in the future, we have power at a cheap rate. That is why we are looking — more and more — at renewable energy; renewable energy not only in hydro, but in many other areas, harnessing the possibility in the sugar and rice industry to generate power.”

The President said Guyana has to be ambitious and begin looking beyond its needs. The energy sector, he said, has to be seen as an important revenue earner with the potential of exporting electricity.

“When you look at the (production capacity) figures of Upper Mazaruni, the 4,000-megawatt capacity (coming from) that area alone, you can see that we can become a powerhouse in exporting electricity to other countries and (to) our neighbours (to) the south,” he said.

The President said there is now talk of building an arc linking the electricity sectors from Brazil, Roraima State, through Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, and back again to Brazil.
“That (arc) can allow us to develop our renewable energy resources and become a major earner in electricity. This is the way we need to go in the near future. We have other possibilities. We have to exploit solar energy more and wind power to give ourselves a wide variety of access to eventually enable us to switch from one to the other.”

President Ramotar is also hoping that Guyana would strike oil in the not-so-distant future because, he said, it would give the country the impetus to speed up development. He said the focus for now is on providing a cheap and stable energy supply, as it is important for accelerating the modernisation of Guyana, creating avenues for creation of more jobs.

“I am committed towards the completion of the Amaila Falls Project, which will help us to produce electricity at a cheaper cost,” he declared.

With cheap electricity, he said, waste from agricultural products would be reduced, and Government would be in a better position to give more resources to farmers and workers generally.