Stellar Energy Principal Fabrizio Zanaboni yesterday lamented the "ridiculous political gambling" impeding the energy firm's plans for reducing electricity costs through a $650 million waste-to-energy facility at the New Providence landfill.
Zanaboni said that The Bahamas has "suffered" through a 12-month delay in any potential construction on the proposed facility, but acknowledged that Stellar still has not received government approvals to access the landfill and conduct necessary tests.
Addressing the recently fanned flames of the letter of intent (LOI) controversy that brought the waste-to-energy company into the national spotlight, Zanaboni said that the delays had not damaged the project, noting that no members of the technical team or the funding consortium had withdrawn from the project.
"This year has been very frustrating for me because I didn't really have any impact here. We could have started funding the first salaries... over 12 months ago. We have the funding now and we had the funding 12 months [ago] - 100 percent of it," he said, adding that he hoped to get further clarification on Stellar's status before returning to the company's international investors next week.
Stellar executives have stated that the waste-to-energy facility could be operational within 24 months of government approval, claiming that the $650 million facility could provide power at 19.5 center per kilowatt/hour.
Stellar found itself at the middle of controversy last year after facts emerged that then Permanent Secretary within the Ministry of Works Renward Wells had signed an LOI with Stellar without Cabinet approval. The fallout of that action saw Wells fired from his post and cast doubt on Stellar's future in The Bahamas - particularly after the landfill's current managers, Renew Bahamas, refused Stellar access to the site without government approval.
The signing once more became a topic of debate after Wells resigned from the PLP and joined the FNM - resulting in renewed demand for information about the signing in July 2014.
"This political gambling is ridiculous... We've been around for six years. We've been through all selection processes that you can think of. We've even participated in a request for proposal. We are qualified... We have the funding, and we had to wait six years to do this project while the landfill is burning.
Stellar Chief Operating Officer J.P. Michelsen yesterday accused politicians of using the signing as a "political football" - stating that he believed Wells had already satisfactorily explained himself.
"We as a business are getting slightly irritated and tired by politicians or people that are standing on the sidelines using this LOI or Stellar Energy to further their own political agendas, and we're going to stop it. The dump is still burning and will continue to burn for quite some time, it seems. And yet some of us decide to continue to play political football with a one-year-old document - and Stellar's business name," he said.
In September, Michelsen stated that the LOI controversy had cost the company approximately $1 million in delays. As of this month, the Stellar executives stated that they had recently met with their U.K.-based and local financiers
"What we're trying to do is do the best thing for the country, which means lower the cost of electricity, clean up the dump and make it into a green zone once it is remediated. But we will not be used as a political tool," said Michelsen.
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