Port going route of designing and building its own waste-to-energy facility
Barbados
The Barbados Port Incorporated (BPI) has hit a snag in its efforts to install a waste-to-energy system.
Speaking from the Lower House on Monday evening, Chief Executive Officer of the BPI David Jean-Marie said that during the procurement process for the incinerator, there were no successful bidders for a “turn-key” waste-to-energy operation.
“We’ve taken some time to get to the point of having a waste-to-energy incinerator designed and built. Because it’s a critical piece of infrastructure and is quite expensive, we want to make sure we get it done right. We did go out to public tender via the Crown Agents to procure a turn-key operation, a waste-to-energy incinerator, and there were no successful bidders,” he said.
Jean-Marie said that a tender has since gone out seeking external applicants.
“A decision was subsequently taken to invite designers, engineers to design a facility. That tender closes on the 27th of February. We will take about three months to evaluate and thereafter advertise for a contractor to build out the waste-to-energy incinerator,” he stated.
The new facility, which will replace the port’s existing incinerator, will use less energy and reduce pollutant emissions and consists of a wet-dry incinerator and a steam rankine cycle turbine.
“The waste-to-energy incinerator is fully capable of taking all types of waste. The old incinerator could not take wet waste and so on, but this one is going to take all forms of waste. It should be smoke-less and we will also convert the waste into energy,” the CEO added.
Last year, the BPI finalised a BDS $100 million loan with the IDB Invest, to support the purchase and installation of the waste-to-energy system, the purchase and installation of up to 1.5 Megawatts of additional rooftop photovoltaic solar capacity and repairs and upgrades to the port’s berth number four.
“We are implementing a number of photovoltaics around the port and we have invited expressions of interest. We expect later on this year to award the tender and to be able to generate up to about two megawatts of energy by 2025. Our expectation is that we will be generating close to 50 per cent of our power usage via alternative [sources],” he continued.
Jean-Marie noted that the port is also looking into the new technology of shore power, where ships could come into port and be plugged in and turn off their generators and the engines.
“We currently have a number of conversations going on with various entities. For example, last week we spoke to a major tug group, who want to bring barges that will have LNG power that will provide us with the shore power. Otherwise, it would involve significant investments working with the Barbados Light and Power. So we are exploring the possibility of shore power and we are having those conversations with the various lines and seeing where those installations exist. There are very few and it’s rather early days yet, but we’ll be paying attention to that area also,” Jean-Marie added.
Image: Niklas (Pixabay)