Caribbean biogas company to provide energy from waste to housing development in Jamaica
CaribShare, a social enterprise delivering energy-from-waste solutions has signed a contract to power a new housing development in Jamaica. The deal will help to strengthen the livelihoods of rural communities through sustainable waste management and clean energy generation.
The Energy from Waste program run by CaribShare Biogas with support from Echos Consulting (a leading environmental sustainability consultancy in Jamaica), offers an innovative solution to help solve two significant challenges in Jamaica: sustainable waste management and access to clean energy. CaribShare collects organic food waste from hotels and livestock farms and turns it into biogas, which is then converted into affordable, reliable electricity to serve the needs of communities in rural Jamaica.
Using the grant fund awarded from the 2012 IDEAS Energy Innovation Contest for the Caribbean, CaribShare is working to develop the first biodigester plant with a capacity to produce enough biogas to generate at least 2000 MWh electrical energy per year.
The company has recently signed a sales agreement with Richmond Development Corporation to supply energy from waste to their new housing development in The Palms area in St. Ann, Jamaica. CaribShare is expected to install a 500m3 digester able to generate 900,000 m3 of biogas per year.
“One third of all the food produced (1.3 million tonnes) annually in Jamaica – ends up wasted in landfills, releasing harmful greenhouse gases and contributing to climate change. The cost to transport waste to landfills can put a significant dent into public budgets. Developing countries are in dire need of their own business models that maximize the value that waste can provide to sustainable development.” says Carol Lue Executive Director of CaribShare.
CaribShare seeks to do just that. Over the next 10 years, they plan to develop six additional biodigesters in phases, to provide a total of at least 500 kW capacity. For the start-up phase, all of the biogas produced will be sold to Richmond Estates, however in future CaribShare plans to generate their own electricity for sale to the national grid and other business entities looking to reduce their energy bill.
“This is an attractive business model for all the parties involved,” explains Carol Lue. “Participating hotels will drastically reduce their waste disposal cost as CaribShare picks up their organic waste free of charge; and participating farms will receive a cash reward and an extra income source for supplying their waste.”
“We are extremely excited to work with CaribShare,” – says Leighton Waterman, GVEP’s Caribbean Country Manager – " especially as another major benefits of the project includes reduced dependence on imported fossil fuels; lower carbon impact from tourism and agriculture and in the future the sale of carbon credits on the open market.”
CaribShare Biogas is one of eight winning initiatives that received grants to the value of US$200,000 in the 2012 IDEAS Energy Innovation Contest. The aim of the Contest was to support the development of innovative projects promoting renewable energies and improving energy efficiency in the Caribbean. Funding was provided by UKAid from the Department for International Development (DFID) with GVEP acting as its implementing partner.
CaribShare is hoped to assist Jamaica to improve access to electricity through decentralized electricity generation and is also expected to stimulate employment and poverty reduction in rural areas by removing a major barrier to development: access to energy.