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During a festive ribbon-cutting ceremony, NRG Energy celebrated the installation of the Spanish Town Estate Solar Project on the island of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. By harnessing the island’s bountiful sunlight, the Spanish Town Estate facility stands ready to generate 4MW of clean energy. The ground-mounted PV power plant is connected directly to the new Gregory E. Willocks Substation at the same location.
NRG executives joined representatives from project partners Toshiba International Corporation and the U.S. Virgin Island Water and Power Authority (WAPA) to tour the Spanish Town Estate facility and the new substation after the official ribbon-cutting. The Spanish Town Estate project will be an important step toward the U.S. Virgin Islands and St. Croix achieving their renewable energy goal to reduce fossil fuel-based energy consumption by 60% over the next decade.
“Now home to NRG’s first solar facility in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Spanish Town Estate stands out as an example of how Caribbean nations can tap the power of the sun to provide clean energy to residents without compromising the island’s natural beauty,” said Edouard MacGuffie, vice president of development, NRG Renew Caribbean region. “
While Toshiba served as the lead engineering, procurement and construction through completion, NRG, through its subsidiaries, is now the sole owner of the Spanish Town Estate facility. This project, which is NRG’s first public solar facility in the U.S. Virgin Islands, highlights a commitment to the region and expands NRG’s efforts in the Caribbean, which also include solar projects in Haiti; a solar installation which will begin next year in St. John and a microgrid installation under development on Necker Island.