Minister of Science, Energy and Technology, Fayval Williams (second left) with, from left, Milverton Reynolds, managing director of the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ); Earl Barrett, general manager, Wigton Windfarm Limited; Gary Peart, CEO, Mayberry Investments Limited, and Oliver Holmes, chairman of the Wigton board of directors at Wednesday’s Mayberry Investor Forum which focused on the Wigton Windfarm Limited. (Photo: Karl McLarty)
THE government hopes to attract at least 10,000 Jamaican investors into owning Wigton Windfarm Limited, which will be going on the market, next month.
Newly appointed Minister of Science, Energy and Technology, Fayval Williams, made the appeal, as the main speaker at Wednesday night’s Mayberry Monthly Investor Forum at the Knutsford Court Hotel, New Kingston, which focused on the 15-year-old Government- owned wind energy plant.
Williams said that Wigton is about to make history again, after leading the way in developing the local renewable energy sector using wind turbines, when the shares go on sale for an initial public Offering (IPO) expected early next month.
She says that the government, the company’s current owner, will ensure that thousands of ordinary Jamaicans have a chance to become the new owners.
“Empowering our future with a clean, environmentally friendly, perpetually available and virtually inexhaustible renewable energy,” she posted, to the delight of the over 200 people who filled the main meeting hall at the hotel to hear the plug.
“The plan is to have at least 10,000 investors become (new) owners of Wigton and share in the profits,” she said, noting that the Government’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) for electricity generation requires a 56 per cent renewable energy capacity for wind and solar by 2037.
The minister also did the math showing that with a three per cent gross growth capacity, the country could be requiring another 950 megawatts of energy from Wigton, in terms of wind and solar energy, by the 2037 deadline.
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