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| Montserrat Drilling Site on the Flank of the Soufriere Volcano, Bastien Poux, EGS, Inc. |
Montserrat should expect to see a third geothermal well being built in early 2016, says local DFID Representative Martin Dawson.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday afternoon, Dawson said EC$17.6 million has been allocated for the project, which is intended to increase the potential yield of geothermal energy available on island.
Dawson said the Environmental Impact Assessment is to be completed shortly and sign off on the location and contract by November 2015. Drilling is expected to be mobilised in 2016.
He added, the current project only involves exploration and it is still within the government’s purview to find potential investors to manage the generation and sale of the energy.
In 2013, two other wells were drilled and evaluations concluded that the maximum yield would be about 1.5 Megawatts per well. The plan for the new well is to drill to about 2,500 metres in depth with a final completion diameter of 8 ½ inches in the St Georges Hill area. It is hoped that along with the geothermal power plant, the three drilled wells will provide between 2-5 MW of electricity to Montserrat.