Antigua Spent Millions to Feed Sheep? | Editorial

By Kieron Murdoch | Opinion Contributor

The government should offer an update on the status of the solar farm adjacent to the airport. Yes, the one inaugurated in 2016 that we all pass daily if we drive on Sir George Walter Highway (Airport Road) with the damaged fence and the sheep grazing to keep the vegetation from interfering with the panels.

The question is, is the facility online? From looking, one cannot tell. But from the damaged fence, hanging signage and general look of neglect, we might be forgiven for assuming it is not.

We know there was a fallout over the solar farm and its operation was at one point in limbo. In 2021, we recall there was talk about the government suing PV Energy Ltd over meeting its obligations about the ongoing operation of the site. PV Energy was the principal company involved in the project brokered under then-Energy Minister, the late Asot Michael.

In May 2021, then Utilities Minister, Sir Robin Yearwood told the Observer that the government and PV Energy Ltd were in a dispute over batteries the government says the company hadn’t supplied. He said: “The Prime Minister and them had a chat and they were supposed to start doing everything but from the time the meeting was finished we haven’t heard nothing from them and I honestly and personally feel that is heading towards the courts.”

So, what is the status three years and several months later? According to information published by the government back in 2016, the 3-megawatt plant at the airport was part of a total 10-megawatt solar project. Overall, it would be beneficial for the sake of transparency for the government to clarify how much of the installed solar capacity created under this project is operating at present, where there are faults if any, and what are the ongoing strategies for remedying them.

If the government is in court with PV Energy, what is the update? If that effort has fallen through, what other options are there? There is no reason why, despite whatever obstacles may have presented themselves, the infrastructure should not be put to proper use and its potential benefit maximised. Otherwise, we would have spent millions merely to provide a shady space to graze a few sheep.

The controversy of the battery dispute between the government and PV Energy Ltd was not an only child as far as the overall project was concerned. The late Ast Michael was taped by foreign law enforcement demanding bribes from the company’s owner, British Businessman Peter Virdee. This revelation created a national scandal in late 2017.

Many would recall Michael was momentarily fired from the Cabinet by Prime Minister Gaston Browne before being reappointed to the Cabinet by Browne after a general election in March 2018, only to resign some months later under pressure from Browne some months later over the same scandal. It would later be revealed in May 2018 that an employee of PV Energy, Dieter Trutschler, had been accused in 2003 of misappropriating funds from an energy project in Europe.

Alongside PV Energy, a company known as the Meeco Group was also linked to the solar project. It was revealed that this entity was owned by Trutschler’s wife. The entire thing left the government with egg on its face, pointing to an alarmingly weak or ineffective level of diligence done on the investors before contracting them for the project.

Of course, it was no surprise to some that such characters would have been sought out by Michael who was himself a highly controversial politician dogged throughout his career by a litany of corruption scandals and scandals surrounding his personal conduct, such as his drunken tirade inside Caribbean Union Bank (CUB) in the run-up to the 2023 general election.

Still, clean renewable energy is a policy priority for every government in the world at the moment, so it is essential that as a nation, we take the push toward renewables seriously. The completion and recent handover of the Green Barbuda Solar Hybrid Electricity Plant in March 2024 demonstrates that when we work with credible partners or donors, much can be achieved sustainably.

So, in an age of destructive climate change when we are at every international forum sounding the alarm for the major polluters of the world to adhere to carbon-cutting pledges, why have we spent several million dollars on a solar farm to leave it non-operational? At this rate, the only thing that will come of this project is the most underpriced mutton ever sold.

About the writer:

Kieron Murdoch is an opinion contributor at antigua.news. He worked as a journalist and later as a radio presenter in Antigua and Barbuda for eight years, covering politics and governance especially. If you have an opinion on the issues raised in this editorial and you would like to submit a response by email to be considered for publication, please email [email protected]