Two years ago, the Meeco Group of Germany was awarded a contract worth $227,706,890 (US$1,088,046.90) for the design, supply and installation of a 440-kilowatt (kW) solar photovoltaic (PV) farm at Mabaruma in Region One (Barima/Waini).
It was a red-letter day for Mabaruma, a new town, but like the rest of the country, long plagued by power problems; though to be honest, Mabaruma’s electricity situation was much worse than most other places. However, it was unfortunately not seen as a priority, as former minister of local government Kellawan Lall had told Parliament in 2011, in answer to questions from opposition MPs. Mr Lall had stated then that Lethem was the priority because of its booming economic growth. Obviously, the provision of a reliable source of electricity as one of the pillars of doing business in Guyana had not resonated with Mr Lall and others.
Before, at the time of, and after the award of the contract, government had boasted that the farm would increase the power received at Mabaruma and nearby communities to 17 hours daily, 9 more than the 8 hours (on a good day) that had been its ration for years. The Mabaruma solar PV farm is the first of its kind in a country where variations of low carbon and green energy have been long touted, but previously resulted in little more than political hot air, which, regrettably, powers nothing. Therefore, a working solar farm in Mabaruma would provide the impetus for similar imminent renewable energy projects ambitiously highlighted in Guyana’s First Voluntary National Review of the Sustainable Development Goals. These include planned solar PV farms at Bartica, Lethem, Mahdia, Port Kaituma, Kwakwani and Matthews Ridge.
Based on releases from the government, complete with photographs, the design, supply and installation were completed since sometime last year. Furthermore, when he spoke with this newspaper in July last year, Chief Executive Officer of the Hinterland Electrification Programme Horace Williams had conservatively set the end of 2018 as the time by which the system should have been up and running. But, as the clichéd saying goes, ‘this is Guyana’ so of course it is not. Taken with the good salting it deserved, Mr Williams’s prediction probably meant the end of 2019. Perhaps. We shall see.
Meanwhile, it has not gone unnoticed that towards the end of last month, the Guyana Energy Agency invited the submission of bids to the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board for the supply, installation, testing and commissioning of a 500kVA power transformer for the Mabaruma Solar Farm. Interested and eligible contractors have until next Tuesday, October 22, to submit their bids. The absence of the transformer is obviously the main reason why the solar farm is not yet providing electricity to Mabaruma. But, as usual, there is more.
Last July, Region One Chairman Brentnol Ashley had downplayed the touted efficacy of the solar farm, claiming to have been told by Mr Williams that the 17 hours was an overstatement. Instead, he claimed, the solar farm’s greatest contribution would be just a reduction in the amount of fossil fuels used to power Mabaruma’s current generator set. If Mr Ashley considers that a secondary goal, he is clearly not a proponent of saving the planet. But that is beside the point, which is that Mr Williams stoutly denied that the 17 hours was an exaggeration. More than that, he doubled down adding that the short-term plan was to increase to 24 hours with the use of the diesel-powered set.
Last week, Mr Ashley, who, it is plain to see, is in the dark whether by his own volition or otherwise, took things up a notch. At a press conference cohosted with PPP/C parliamentarians Nigel Dharamlall and Collin Croal and others, Mr Ashley lamented that the solar farm, having been hindered by problems, was being reclaimed by the forest. There could be two scenarios within which this statement was uttered. The first is that Mr Ashley either did not do his due diligence and therefore was unaware of the tender already out for the power transformer or he counted on his fellow residents not having done theirs, which is highly likely. The second is that Mr Ashley, like most politicians, is parsimonious with the facts.
However, neither scenario explains the government’s almost cloak and dagger tactics with this project. The elephant in room, of course, is Mabaruma’s local government situation. In the 2016 Local Government Elections (LGE), there was a tie in the council seats won by the PPP/C and APNU+AFC followed by myriad problems including legal action by the former. At last year’s LGE, the PPP/C gained outright control of the council amid claims that approval for voting by proxy had been breached. Suffice it to say that there is bad blood among some of the office holders.
Nevertheless, the Mabaruma solar PV farm belongs to all the people of Mabaruma and will benefit all of them. Therefore, the government owes it to the people to say why the Meeco Group, which brought a much larger 4-MWp solar plant in Bethesda, Antigua from design to commission, has not done the same in Mabaruma. Furthermore, a reasonably accurate timeline for completion should also be offered, particularly given that Mabaruma residents have long suffered for lack of anything near adequate electricity. At the same time, the opposition should desist from any action that even vaguely resembles an attempt to undermine this project. To allow politics to stand in the way of progress is to do the people a disservice. They deserve better.
