Arygle International Airport
The Barbados-based CARICOM Development Fund (CDF) has approved an additional 2-million EC dollar loan for the Argyle International Airport project.
According to Caribbean News Now, the funding will be used to purchase equipment to establish a 218 kVa solar energy farm that will reduce electricity costs at the multi-million dollar facility.
CDF’s CEO, Lorne McDonnough, explained that this pilot renewable energy project will provide approximately 35 percent of the airport’s solar lit and air-conditioned needs at start up.
He said it will be the first part of a wider programme of power generation to meet the needs of the airport at peak demand and full operation.
It is expected that at full generation any excess electricity will be made available through the grid to the rest of the country.
Mr. McDonnough said the CDF is promoting greening, or environmentally friendly energy projects in the region and is striving to establish the plant at Argyle as a flagship for the initiative.
McDonnough noted that the CDF will be working with development partners with a view to eventually making the airport the first fully ‘green’ airport in the Eastern Caribbean.
The airport is the largest infrastructural project in which the CDF is involved, having provided 22.199 million EC dollars in a mixture of loans and grants for the construction of the runway and apron and the acquisition and installation of the runway lighting.
