Envirogreen-director Quade: “We did not pay Mr. Buncamper”
PHILIPSBURG – “Your sources are not correct. We have not paid Mr. Buncamper to promote our waste-to-energy project, nor would we. We take such rumors seriously as we are supported by the Canadian government through Export Development Canada and we are subject to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of both the United States and Canada, as are our partners.”
That is the answer stmaartennews.com received from Douglas Quade, Chief Operating Officer at the Canadian company Envirogreen Energy to a question about a rather persistent rumor that St. Maarten’s head of Infrastructure Management at the Ministry of Public Housing, Urban Planning, Environment and Infrastructure, Claudius Buncamper, had been paid by the company to promote the waste-to-energy facility the Canadians were hoping to build on Pond Island.
Vromi-Minister Miklos Giterson told us that the Envirogreen initiative is off the table, while his predecessor Christophe Emmanuel claimed in December of last year that the deal was two signatures away from completion.
Quade is completely unaware of the government’s decision to drop the plan. “We have not been informed that Envirogreen is off the table, nor are we aware of this,” Quade said.
The Envirogreen COO sent stmaartennews.com a summary of its project-proposal after reading an opinion headlined The Question Nobody Ever Asked that appeared on stmaartennews.com on April 22.
Quade notes that Envirogreen has partnered with EXP and Infralinx for the waste-to-energy facility that, it appears now, will never build in St. Maarten. EXP provides engineering, architecture, design and consulting services. Infralinx describes itself as “a boutique infrastructure firm of experienced partners and affiliated companies including U.S. based, Infralinx Capital Partners (IFCP), with specialist capabilities in developing, financing and investment globally across the transaction cycle and capital structure.”
Quade wrote to us that his company is “willing, ready and able to implement (its proposal) when and if it is accepted by VROMI and GEBE.”
Under its agreement, Envirogreen would invest $70 million into the local economy for the waste-to-energy facility. The company would turn over the plant in good working order to GEBE after 20 to 25 years. “Such a plant can be expected to operate efficiently for more than 50 years,” Quade said.
Envirogreen would complete the project in two years or less and remove 100,000 tons of waste from the existing landfill per year. This is ten times the amount mentioned in a 2009-report about a similar facility that was to be built by Windward Roads.
According to Quade, Envirogreen would receive and process to bundle all municipal solid waste for future use. “There is no additional solid waste going onto the landfill from the start of construction of the facility.”
Envirogreen would produce 9.3 Megawatt of electricity and sell it to GEBE for $0.26 per Kilowatt. Quade says that this price is below the average cost of producing energy in the Caribbean, referring to a 2016 IMF Working Paper that sets the average price at $0.29 per Kilowatt. According to St. Maarten’s National Energy Policy, that was published two years before the IMF Working Paper, GEBE produces electricity at $0.22 per Kilowatt. Consumers pay much more than that due to the fuel clause.
Quade says that the Envirogreen-price – that comes without a surcharge – would go further down if GEBE takes off more than the contractual 9.3 MegaWatt per year.
