THE Government is stepping up its drive to have 50 per cent of the islands electricity supply generated by renewables by 2030.

In a statement to the House of Representatives on Tuesday, minister with portfolio responsibility for energy Daryl Vaz said on his appointment to the post in September 2020, he appointed new leadership to the Generation Procurement Entity (GPE) with a clear mandate to ensure that it speeds up work on new renewable electricity-generation capacity.

“I outlined clear goals to the new GPE leadership and as a result, an expression of interest (EOI) was launched after several stakeholder consultations in May 2023. This resulted in over 42 companies comprising over 20 local Jamaican firms, with global interest from as far as Mauritius and as near as the Cayman Islands, indicating keen interest in the first tranche of 100 megawatts (MW) of renewable procurement,” said Vaz.

“The GPE received preliminary offers of just under 2,700 MW of renewables of hydro, solar PV, wind and biomass projects. This EOI, a precursor to the request for proposal [RFP], gives me great excitement for the prospect of significant global competition to fill our renewable generation,” added Vaz.

He told the House that other individuals and entities who want to be involved in this stage of the process will have until February 1, 2024 to express their interest.

According to Vaz, a RFP for a second tranche of 168 MW of renewable energy will also go to the market during this financial year.

“With both tranches of renewables, this will move our renewable target to 30 per cent of our installed capacity which now stands at just under 13 per cent, as we move steadily towards our 50 per cent policy goals.

“I commend GPE for their newfound efficiency and look forward to the outcome of their procurement activities,” said Vaz.

The energy minister reiterated that with the Cabinet’s directive to transition from expensive fossil-fuelled plants to mature renewables, the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) will shortly retire 175.5 MW of fossil-fuelled plants and replace them with renewables.

He noted that this renewable project is not associated with the procurement activities of the GPE.

“When the JPS project is complete our nation will significantly increase its renewable energy capacity, bringing it to approximately 44 per cent of the total energy mix on the grid,” noted Vaz.

In May, Vaz announced that the Cabinet approved amendments to the Electricity Act to enable the JPS to replace its ageing power-generation plants at Rockfort and Hunt’s Bay in the Corporate Area with renewable sources of energy.

Marubeni Power International, the majority shareholder in the JPS, has since indicated that it intends to spend $500 million to replace those plants.

“In the next two years or less, some of the plants are going to be shutting down and have to be replaced, and the replacement the Government indicates to us has to be renewables,” Damian Obiglio, senior vice-president, Marubeni Power International, and chairman of JPS, told the Jamaica Observer in an interview last month.

He added that the investment will also include battery storage to ensure power remains available when the sun is not shining or when the wind dies down.

“The JPS is in the final stages with the Government about how much battery, wind and solar power,” Obiglio added in the interview.

He said it is expected that 60 per cent of the investment, or US$300 million, will be spent on batteries to store power for future use. Of the US$200 million left to build the farms, he said US$160 million will go to solar farms while the other US$40 million will be invested in wind energy solutions.

“These are different investments from the other renewable investments the Government is seeking. This is the JPS just replacing existing capacity which is about to come offline with renewables,” Obiglio stressed.