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Submarine Salvation For Dirty Diesel On Caye Caulker
posted (March 14, 2019)
No matter where you are watching this tonight, your electricity is probably coming form BEL's national power grid. That is, of course, unless you are in Caye Caulker - where, if you listen hard enough, you can probably hear the thrum and whistle of diesel generators laboring into the night. The growing island is still not connected to the national grid - but an ambitious new BEL project hopes to change that. Jules Vasquez found out more today:

Jules Vasquez reporting
The brilliant sapphire waters on the leeward, or western side of Caye Caulker seem completely unspoilt and, to the east, the windward side, is bordered by the spectacular barrier reef.

And while they frame to Caye Caulker's matchless natural beauty, and lay eh scene for an emergent tourist mecca

La Isla Carinosa has a dirty secret. All the power on the island comes from decades old diesel generators, a costly, noisy and non renewable source of energy. It's causing air and noise pollution on the island, and one year ago, the PUC told them to end it, quickly:

May 07, 2018
John Avery - Chairman, PUC
"Caye Caulker is currently isolated from the grid, which means that 100% of the power comes from fossil fuel and we've been spending over $3 million dollars a year on diesel for Caye Caulker alone. That helps no one. BEL cannot make any mark up on that and that is the most expensive source of power in the country. Actually, we are just throwing money into these diesel trucks that come in and continue to operate Caye Caulker on diesel."

And, now, BEL is throwing its money - 15 million dollars - behind a project to end that diesel dependency on Caye Caulker.

This morning, the company took the media to San Pedro where they explained the proposed project

And toured the area where they will run a submarine cable six miles from the tip of Southern San Pedro to Northern Caye Caulker.

Kevin Petzold, Project Manager
"It's not sustainable to keep the generators running to provide the kind of supply that Caye Caulker will need. So its planning for the future and also taking environment into consideration."

The route would traverse the Hol Chan Marine Reserve. And also the sweet spots for recreational fishers and lobster fishers:

Reporter
"What precautions are taken to ensure that the marine environment, especially the Hol Chan Reserve is not affected?"

Kevin Petzold, Project Manager, BEL
"Well BEL is being very responsible in that manner. In fact, that's probably one of the key things, we have been in very close consultation with the Hol Chan Marine office. Their input has been heavily considered and they are going along the journey with us in terms of the design."

But what islanders on Caye Caulker want most is a reliable power supply:

Reporter
"Are you able to convince the residents that the sub-marine cable will be impervious and immune from small exogenous events?"

Kevin Petzold, Project Manager, BEL
"I hope that we can. We are trying our best to do that. I think we were successful in San Pedro and we'd like to see the same level of success for Caye Caulker, where the outage has reduced dramatically over the last few years. The line itself has not experience any issue for over 20 years."

That San Pedro submarine cable, laid in 1998 comes 16 miles across from Bomba on the mainland and comes aground here on south Ambergris Caye:

Kevin Petzold
"Clearly having something like what San Pedro enjoys which is similar sub-marine cable, is big benefit to them."

Now, BEL is having its first public consultation next week to make that pitch to Hicaquenos:

Kevin Petzold
"We have been extensively communicating with stakeholders including the residents. We have held many forums, one on one with the residents and we don't see no significant concern. The residents seem to have faith in BEL's being responsible."

So, while that public consultation on the environmental and Social Impact Assessment will be held next week Thursday night at 6:30 in the village, BEL says it has been consulting with the village council and residents since 2019.

Again, the 15 million dollars project is pending environmental approval, and after that BEL will seek funding from the CDB.

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