Barbuda could be powered entirely by renewable energy within 18 months to two years under plans to expand generating capacity and add battery storage, Prime Minister Gaston Browne said Saturday.

Speaking on the Browne and Browne Show, Browne said India had offered a financing facility of approximately US$7 million that the government wanted to use to support the expansion.

“We want to expand the renewable energy plant in Barbuda to add maybe another two megs and to also add batteries,” he said.

“So Barbuda, very shortly, maybe in the next 18 months, two years, should be able to be powered exclusively by green energy.”

Browne presented the timeline as an expectation. He did not announce a construction start date, specify the battery storage capacity or provide details of the financing terms during the programme.

The prime minister said the government wanted Barbuda to become “totally green and sustainable,” linking the energy initiative to wider development plans for the island.

Those plans include a new port and road construction supported by financing intended to provide approximately $50 million in the first year.

Browne said a Caribbean Development Bank facility of about $35 million would be supplemented by funds advanced by PLH and deducted from transfer taxes.

The renewable energy expansion also forms part of a broader effort to reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels, which Browne said exposed Antigua and Barbuda and other Caribbean countries to international price shocks.

He said governments within the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States were discussing a joint financing initiative to accelerate the transition to renewable energy.

“We are now discussing it within the OECS, a joint initiative in which we could borrow probably a few billion dollars and to transition into renewables so that we’ll reduce our reliance on fossil fuels,” he said.

Browne did not announce a completed regional financing agreement or specify how much Antigua and Barbuda would receive under that initiative.

This article was originally published by Antigua News Room. Read the original article here: Barbuda could run entirely on renewable energy within two years, Browne says.