The PM also spoke about another pressing issue with serious fiscal implications: the energy crisis. Yesterday you heard about some of the ways GOB is trying to assist BEL. And today he explained BEL's plan that should allow for more reliable and cheaper energy in the next couple of years:
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"By the end of December, our government will provide more than 150 million dollars in assistance and prepayments to BEL to help protect Belizeans by keeping the cost low, keeping the utility financially stable so they could continue to operate and pay for the cost of electricity, and keep the cost of electricity as low as possible for Belizeans. Under BEL's plan, they will start to purchase energy, if not by the end of December, somewhere in January. Probably you have seen in La Democracia how they're cleaning out landâ€"that's where they're going to be putting 14 MW of solar power. There's another company that should come online by March with the solar power, and the batteries by June, and they're working with Santander and BSI. They believe that by doing that they will not have to buy the expensive energy; they could buy energy from Mexico when the price is low, and then at night, since we have batteries to store the electricity, then we could buy that, which is way cheaper than what we get from them. Solar energy, I think they're looking at about six and a half cents, and batteries will be about eight and a half cents, which is way cheaper than what they're presently paying. And according to BEL projection, they believe they'll be able to provide a small profit by the end of next year, and then the following year, as more solar comes online and more batteries, the 40 MW of batteries we've been working with the World Bank will come in place."
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