Letting off steam: How Dominica’s volcanoes will boost its green energy
With rainforests, waterfalls, volcanoes and hot springs, the Caribbean island of Dominica’s dramatic landscape is a haven for adventure-seeking ecotourists.
It attracted 83,966 visitors last year, a 13% rise from 2023, and led by new direct flights from the US, and the opening of more hotels.
Nicknamed the “Nature Island”, and now recovered from the extensive damage caused by 2017’s Hurricane Maria, Dominica’s government is set to harness its natural resources to generate clean electricity for its 66,000 residents and tourism sector.
To end the country’s long reliance on generators fuelled by imported diesel, a geothermal power station is being built in the south of the country. It will access the boiling hot water contained in natural underground reservoirs that are heated by the surrounding volcanic rock.
The 10-megawatt plant, under construction near the village of Laudat in the lush Roseau Valley, is on track to become operational by the end of the year.
Steam will be drawn up to the surface to drive turbines that will generate electricity. The used steam will then be cooled to the point where it becomes water again, and reinjected back underground for the process to restart.
“We hope to totally eliminate the need for diesel generation for electricity in Dominica by 2030,” Dominica’s energy minister Dr Vince Henderson tells the BBC. The government also says that the geothermal plant will reduce electricity bills.
And it is not just Dominica (not to be confused with the similarly named Dominican Republic), that is set to benefit. Long-term plans include exporting surplus electricity via undersea cables to neighbouring islands.
Dr Henderson adds that he hopes the success of the geothermal plant will inspire other Caribbean nations to explore more renewable energy sources.
Dominica’s geothermal plant will be just the second in the Caribbean. Guadeloupe, an overseas department of France, has had a 15-megawatt station in operation for three decades.
The Roseau Valley facility is being created through a public-private partnership between the Dominican government and US-Israeli renewable energy company Ormat Technologies.
It is costing tens of millions of US dollars, partially funded by grants and investments from several governments, including the US, UK, Japan and New Zealand. Additional funding has come from various non-governmental organizations from around the world, and loans from the World Bank and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).
The Dominican government has also ploughed significant resources into the project, which required high upfront costs and a complex exploration process including drilling deep underground to test temperatures.
