“Does wind power have a future in the Caribbean?” This was the question posed in the final panel of the Caribbean Sustainable Energy Conference in Port of Spain last week, against a backdrop of scepticism from many commentators about the potential of wind power both in the Caribbean and globally.
The consensus from the three panelists, Augosto Bonzi Teixeira, Energy Specialist, IDB, Kevin Atwaroo, Power Systems Engineer, Technical Services, National Energy and Sheena Gosine, Energy International Relations and Affairs Advisor to the Minister & Vice Chair Wind Energy Steering Committee of Trinidad and Tobago, Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries, was that wind power does indeed have a bright future in the region. Wind power in particular was seen as important for Trinidad & Tobago's effort to green its petrochemical production and produce low carbon commodities such as ammonia and methanol.
This has been a ongoing topic of conversation in Trinidad & Tobago for many years, but until now has been based on theoretic models and simulations, rather than robust actual data collected in the field. Provisional wind resource data is now beginning to be available, and it seems to be pointing in a positive direction. This data only covers six months (rather than the full year that is required at a minimum for any investor) and it paints a positive picture for the potential of wind power in Trinidad & Tobago.
One of the challenges for any wind power investor is having sufficient data on the wind resources. This is critical since the design of the wind project and financing are predicated on the data that a wind resource assessment will provide. Without robust data there will be no investments in wind. For this reason, governments wanting to attract investments in wind, collect wind speed data and make it available to potential investors, much as they do with seismic data to attract investors in oil or gas.
In T&T, a wind resource assessment programme (WRAP) commenced in November 2024 with the deployment of two Light Detection and Ranging devices (LiDARs) onshore Trinidad at two locations which the previous "Wind Roadmap" study had indicated showed the best promise for wind turbine deployment, namely Orange Valley on the west coast and and Galeota on the east coast. The two LiDARs were deployed to measure wind data to international standards for a period of 12-18 months, under the onshore ‘Wind Resource Assessment Programme (WRAP) and it marked the first steps towards official wind energy deployment in Trinidad and Tobago. The WRAP is led by the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries along with the implementation agency, National Energy Corporation and supported by T&TEC, the state utility company. The project received support from the European Union (EU) for a consultancy to provide technical expertise for the conduct of the onshore WRAP.
At the Caribbean Sustainable Energy Conference, Sheena Gosine, Energy International Relations and Affairs Adviser to the Minister of Energy and Energy Industries and Vice-Chair of the Wind Energy Steering Committee shared some preliminary results of the WRAP. Gosine said, the EU experts have been reviewing the data since November. She reported that “preliminary results indicate, the wind resource at the Port of Galeota, is very good with a main wind speed of 7.8 meters per second at a height of 122 meters and reaching 8.12 meters per second at 202 meters above ground level. The fact that the wind is mainly blowing from the eastern direction will also be positive for the development of the future wind farms in this area.”
Gosine, stressed that this was preliminary data but indicated that this was very good news for the potential of wind power in Trinidad & Tobago.