Plans to use heat to power St. Lucia

Fri, Jul 23rd 2010, 12:00 PM

Qualibou Energy announced Wednesday that it has entered into a binding agreement with the Government of St. Lucia to develop and deliver power from geothermal resources on the island.

St Lucia, located in the Eastern Caribbean, is part of a volcanic arc known as the Lesser Antilles. Surface manifestations of geothermal activity are centered in the Sulphur Springs area and include hot springs, steam fumaroles and boiling mud pools. The resource has been extensively explored since the mid 1970's and nine wells have been drilled to date. Steam was found in five of the exploratory boreholes with one of the deeper wells returning steam and water at 235 degrees Celsius, creating ideal conditions for electricity generation.

Qualibou Energy Inc. is an emerging renewable energy company with a growth strategy emphasizing greenfield developments. The company's first geothermal concession is located on St Lucia. Qualibou acquired the project through its reverse acquisition of UNEC Holdings, Inc.

"The resource on St Lucia has proven reserves of 30 Megawatts and probable reserves of an additional 140 Megawatts," said Stephen Baker, President and CEO of Qualibou. "In oil terms, the proven and probable reserves are 60.1 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE), representing a very significant asset for Qualibou.

"Production drilling plans are underway and a drilling schedule will be announced in the near future. We plan to generate 120 Megawatts of power from this resource with the first phase being 15 Megawatts," Mr. Baker added.

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