Blue Mountain Renewables ready to invest US$96 million in their 42MW Wind Farm

With the saga relating to the choice of Azurest Cambridge Power as the selected Bidder to build the 360MW LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) power plan now building up pressure as stated in my blog article entitled “Azurest Cambridge Power wins the Bid for 360MW Power Plant - Minister Paulwell caught in OCG Corruption Probe”, we now turn our attention to the upcoming Bids for the 115MW of Renewable Energy Power.

This 115MW Power Plant may be centralized or distributed and is supposed to provide some 400GWh of Electricity and cut Jamaica Oil Bill by an additional US$55 million. Some twenty eight (28) Proposals from twenty (20) entities are Bidding to supply Jamaica with Renewable Energy, most of them Solar. A few of the notable Bidders are as follows:

1.      Armorview Holdings Ltd

2.      BNRG Renewables Jamaica Limited

3.      Deneb Limited

4.      Optimal Energy one of the previous Bidders for the 360MW LNG Power Plant as stated in in my blog article entitled “OUR opens 360MW LNG Power Plant Bids as JPS Co forms Energize Jamaica with 3 of the Bidders - Friday August 9th 2013 is Jamaica's Power Emancipation Day”.

5.      Roraima Consulting Incorporated

6.      Wirsol AG and Roc Energy Ltd

7.      WRB Enterprises

Curiously, only two (2) of them are Wind Energy based:  WWFL (Wigton Wind Farms Limited) and BMR (Blue Mountain Renewables). With Optima Energy in the race, expect to hear and see more in the Newspapers about the other Bidders for the 115MW Renewable Energy Contract that were a part of the original 360MW LNG Project who’d lost to Azurest Cambridge Power! 

WWFL - Three Sites is the Charm

The first is well known, that being PCJ (Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica) WWFL (Wigton Wind Farms Limited) who’ve recently submitted a detailed Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)  and PCJ funded study of twenty four (24) sites across Jamaica from data collected between November 2011 and January 2012 as stated in “Jamaica can triple wind Energy output”, published Friday, August 23, 2013, The Jamaica Observer.

The PCJ’s study has identified three (3) new sites for Wind Energy:

1.      Kemps Hill in Clarendon

2.      Top Lincoln in Manchester,

3.      Winchester in the shadow of the John Crow Mountains, St Thomas

PCJ’s study states that these three (3) sites can add the following to the Energy Grid:

1.      5.3 GWh per annum per site

2.      15.9 GWh per annum for all three (3) sites

The Wigton III Project, set to begin construction in Fourth Quarter of 2013 as predicted in my Geezam blog article entitled “Wigton Wind Farm: Origins and Future Development of Wind Energy in Jamaica”, will add the following capacity to WWFL by 2015:

1.      Twelve (12) 2000 KW Vestas V80 Wind Turbines

2.      24 MW Total combined output

3.      63 GWh Average Power Output per annum

Once Wigton III Project is online it’ll bring WWFL up to the following installed base

1.      44 Wind Turbines in total

2.      62.7 MW of installed capacity

3.      150 GWh Average Power Output per annum

212 GWh is what WWFL is betting they can squeeze out of the three (3) additional sites, by cramming more Wind Turbines on each site. Adding together the Output of Wigton I Project, Wigton II Project, Wigton III Project, the three (3) sites and JPS Co's (Jamaica Public Service Company) Munro Wind Farm's, the total tally becomes more impressive:

1.      320 GWh per annum of Electricity (362 GWh by my math!)

2.      124,000 barrels per annum less Oil added to the National Oil Bill

3.      $1.2 billion per annum reduction in the National Oil Bill

BMR - Gone with the Wind among Sunflowers

BMR (Blue Mountain Renewables), a thirty five (35) year old Renewable Energy company that specializes in Wind Turbine installation I’ve never heard of as stated in “Gone with the wind: Blue Mountain Renewables looks to blow down Energy costs”, published Tuesday September 24, 2013,by Edmond Campbell, Senior Staff Reporter, The Jamaica Gleaner

They too also has similar plans to Bid for the 115MW Renewable Energy Contract. In the same vein as WWFL, BMR is also looking at the 75 acres of land near to the JPS Co (Jamaica Public Service Company) Wind Farm in St. Elizabeth with an eye to lease a section of the area and expands by adding their own Wind Turbines.

BMR’s principal Investors, Bruce Levy and his US partner Paul Hanrahan, CEO of American Capital Energy and Infrastructure, have already begun talks with JPS Co and have also submitted their Bid among the many other Bidders with the following configurations in mind:

1.      34MW Wind Energy Plant built with an initial investment of US$77 million

2.      42MW Wind Energy Plant built with an initial investment of US$86 million 

The projected effect on the Jamaican Economy is as follows:

1.      120 Jamaicans Jobs during the installation of the Wind Turbines and the Power Substation to step down the power and connect to JPS Co's Grid

2.      10 Jamaicans Jobs (full-time) to run the Plant in terms of Maintenance

3.      Electricity rates of between US$12.6KWh to US$12.9KWh sold to JPS co under an IPP (Independent Power Provider) arrangement

Clearly they have this well thought out. Unlike Azurest Cambridge Power, which is now raising the capital via a US$ Denominated International Bond issue via Sterling Asset Management, they have the capital earmarked for the project, to quote CEO of American Capital Energy and Infrastructure Paul Hanrahan, quote: “From our standpoint, the day we get the word we've won the Bid and sign the contract, we'll take our capital and set it aside, and its earmarked for this project”.

Renewables is Expensive - Reducing Oil Imports is the Name of the Game

Truth be told at those rates Renewable Energy is pretty expensive despite the words of Bruce Levy, quote: What's really interesting is that the Government sees huge value in this because it's reducing the cost of Energy. You drop the price of electricity, and all of a sudden, you have cheaper products, every business in Jamaica [will] become more competitive, and that is why all the Government is looking to putting in this is the real big winner”.

But after such as small initial investment and a ramp up with an additional 73MW of capacity, if BMR can save on the importation of US$55 million dollars of Oil Importation, then it’s more than worth the effort. Ditto too WWFL, who are way ahead of the game, can more than supply the 115MW and in the process, cut the purse strings of the GOJ and the PetroCaribe Fund from which they’re currently funded by inviting International Investors and VC (Venture Capitalists) to invest!

Stay tuned to this blog as I cover this upcoming 115MW Renewable Energy Auction to see which of the twenty (20) Bidders will win this coveted Contract!