As the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) yesterday unveiled a solar project which would save it almost $1 million in power costs per year, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds announced that the Amaila Falls hydroelectricity project should begin by mid-2013.
“No later than the middle of next year, everything should be in place and ground should be broken and maybe 42 months later we should be receiving our first hydroelectricity. Those are our thinking and our plans today and I would say today, that today they are much more realistic than some time ago because we have crossed a number of hurdles some of which we did not anticipate earlier,” he said. Asked later by Stabroek News whether the hurdles crossed included financing from the Inter-American Development Bank, the Prime Minister said that he understands that “good progress is being made on that.” The Amaila project first surfaced on the government’s radar around 2000.
Officials of Sithe Global- the developer for the project- some months ago had stated that the IDB support was critical, while adding that it would have spelt certain doom for the project should it not be
