By Desmond Brown
FORT-DE-FRANCE, Martinique, Jun 24 2015 – The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the private sector lending arm of the United States (US) government is to sign a US$48 million loan agreement with Jamaica for a 20 megawatt solar facility.
OPIC chief of staff, John Morton, told the Caribbean News Service (CNS) on the sidelines of a conference here on Island Energy Transitions, that he will sign the agreement on Thursday with Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller.
“That’s on the back of a 38 megawatt wind project that we supported in the island last year. So in only a year, with two projects, our agency is supporting about 10 percent of the island’s energy supply,” he said.
Morton said that over the last five years under the Obama administration, OPIC has focused on development of renewable energy.
“When we came into office six years ago OPIC was supporting about US$10 million a year of renewable energy investment. Over those five years we’ve seen that grow from $10 million a year to over $1 billion a year in each of the last two years,” he said.
“We have been particularly excited and thrilled to be part of that energy revolution happening around the world and here in the Caribbean. Over the last year we’ve begun to develop an extraordinarily big pipeline of projects in the region.”
A year ago, the Obama administration launched the Caribbean Energy Security Initiative which includes a partnership of the Department of Energy, USAID, the US State Department and OPIC.
Morton said that first time in OPIC’s history, they’ve dedicated “a deal team” to do Caribbean deals exclusively, to focus on this region exclusively.
