Toshiba International has begun construction on a 4MW solar project on the island of St Croix with the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority (WAPA).
The project, the first of its kind to be proposed for the 50,000 population island, will be built in Estate Spanish Town.
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Toshiba will provide engineering, procurement and construction services for the project, which is due to be completed by the end of 2014.
The plant will include 19,600 PV 255W modules, connected to eight 500KW inverters, and using 817 solar racking structures.
A 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) was signed on 4 June between WAPA and Toshiba; energy will go to St. Croix’s national grid.
The plant is expected to supply 8% of St. Croix’s energy peak requirement and 3% of the Virgin Islands territory peak requirement – WAPA will be less dependent on expensive fossil fuels, lowering local utility bills.
The starting price agreed under the PPA is US$0.155 per KWh, increasing by 1.5% every year for an overall cost of US$0.1716 per KWh. This rate is less than what WAPA would pay for the same amount of electricity produced in other power plants, it said.
WAPA also signed PPA contracts with SunEdison and Lanco Virgin Islands, who between them will build a further 18MW of solar energy for the territory.
The island’s government is aiming to reduce fossil fuel consumption by 60%, by 2025.