USVI Wind Projects Enter Next Phase with Executed Lease

The lease agreement necessary to progress work on the wind farm projects slated St. Thomas and St. Croix is now in the hands of the Department of Property and Procurement. That was the word from Joel Hart of Advance Power, who provided an update to the V.I. Public Services Commission during its monthly meeting on Tuesday.

“We have formally executed and acknowledged the site lease, and it has been overnighted to Property and Procurement,” Mr. Hart said. Now begins the potentially lengthy bureaucratic process, with approvals needed from the Attorney General’s office, the Senate, and the governor.

“For the permitting and approval process, we can't formally initiate that without having the leasehold and the site leads completed,” Mr. Hart said, while noting that Advance Power is nevertheless conducting preparatory work in anticipation of the completion of the leasing process.

Mr. Hart also told commissioners that the structure of the lease had changed, so that instead of Advance Power subleasing the property from WAPA as originally contemplated, they would be the primary leaseholder in the agreement with Property & Procurement.