Electricity woes: Millions Spent on Solar Farms, for what gains?

Dear Editor,

The Government of Guyana had embarked on an aggressive programme of solar-farm construction, with millions and in some cases billions of dollars being invested in solar infrastructure across the country.

Renewable energy is something that Guyana should absolutely pursue. But when taxpayers’ money and national resources are being invested at this scale, the public deserves to know whether these facilities are actually delivering the promised electricity, savings and energy security.

The question I am therefore asking is simple. What is going on with Guyana’s solar farms?

Publicly available information shows solar farms at Mabaruma, Lethem, Bartica/Daag Point, Mahdia, Wakenaam, Leguan, Onderneeming, Hampshire, Prospect, Trafalgar and Charity, with additional large facilities being developed at Block 37, Retrieve and Dacoura in Linden. The costs are significant.

The Mabaruma Solar Farm, with a capacity of 400 kW, was reported at approximately G$272 million.

The Lethem Solar Farm, with a capacity of 1 MW, has been reported at G$472 million, while more recent government information puts the investment at approximately G$490 million.

The 1.5 MW Bartica/Daag Point Solar Farm has been reported at G$625 million at commissioning, while more recent government statements place its value at more than G$703 million.

The 0.65 MW Mahdia Solar Farm, including a 1,500-kWh battery system and a 2-kilometre transmission line, cost G$362.41 million.

The 750-kW Wakenaam Solar Farm, with battery storage, has been reported at approximately US$2.3 million, while government has also described the investment as approximately G$460 million.

The 600-kW Leguan Solar Farm was valued at G$292.1 million.

Then there is the much larger GUYSOL programme, involving eight solar farms totalling 33 MWp of solar capacity and 34 MWh of battery storage, with an overall programme value reported at approximately US$83.3 million to US$83.8 million.

Under GUYSOL, the 5 MW Onderneeming Solar Farm alone cost US$10.4 million, or approximately G$2.2 billion.

The 3 MW Charity Solar Farm cost approximately US$8.14 million.

The 3 MW Prospect Solar Farm cost approximately US$5.5 million, or about G$1.2 billion.

The 4 MW Trafalgar Solar Farm cost approximately US$8 million, or about G$1.7 billion.

The individual cost of the 3 MW Hampshire Solar Farm has not been clearly identified in the public information I have examined, although it forms part of the approximately US$83.8 million GUYSOL programme.

These are not insignificant sums of money. So what is the public getting for this investment?

The Government has repeatedly told Guyanese that these solar farms will reduce diesel consumption, lower generation costs, strengthen the electricity system, reduce consumers’ electricity bills and provide more reliable power.

Those claims must now be measured against actual performance.

I am therefore calling on the Ministry of Public Utilities and Aviation, the Guyana Energy Agency and Guyana Power and Light Inc. to publish, for every solar farm in Guyana the following:

1. The total amount actually spent on each solar farm, including the solar panels, inverters, batteries, transmission lines, substations, civil works, consultancy fees and any variations or additional contracts.
2. The original contract price versus the final project cost for each facility.
3. The contractor or contractors responsible for each project.
4. The amount of electricity each solar farm has actually generated since commissioning, broken down by month.
5. The amount of diesel consumption actually displaced by each facility.
6. The actual monetary savings achieved from reduced diesel consumption at each location.
7. The current operational status of each solar farm, including whether all panels, inverters and battery-storage systems are functioning at their designed capacity.
8. The average percentage of installed capacity actually being utilised.
9. Whether each solar farm is supplying electricity directly to the local community/grid at this very moment.
10. Where a solar farm generates more electricity than the local demand, what happens to that excess electricity?
11. How much excess electricity is being stored in batteries, and how much, if any, is being exported into the GPL grid.
12. For those facilities connected to GPL’s distribution systems, how much electricity has actually entered the grid since commissioning?
13. Whether any electricity generated has been curtailed or wasted because the local system could not absorb it.
14. How much battery capacity is currently available at each location and whether the batteries are operating as designed.
15. The projected useful life of each facility and the expected cost of replacing batteries, inverters and other major components.

These questions are particularly important because the projects do not all operate in the same way.

The GUYSOL facilities are designed to connect to the 13.8-kV distribution network in their respective areas, while some of the hinterland projects operate within isolated local electricity systems. Therefore, saying that a solar farm is “connected to the grid” does not necessarily mean that its excess electricity is flowing into the national interconnected grid.

The public needs to know precisely where the electricity is going.

For example, GUYSOL’s own published information says that the five completed GUYSOL facilities at Onderneeming, Hampshire, Prospect, Trafalgar and Charity had reached 18 MWp of installed capacity by March 2026 and were operational. The programme reports substantial projected annual fuel-cost savings from these facilities.

At Onderneeming, government says the 5 MW facility is expected to generate approximately 7,700 MWh annually and save about G$447 million per year in fossil-fuel costs. At Charity, the projected annual generation is about 4,600 MWh, with approximately G$267 million in annual avoided fossil-fuel generation costs.

At Trafalgar, the 4 MW facility was already reported to be contributing approximately 3 MW to the GPL grid at commissioning, with projected annual avoided fossil-fuel costs of about G$300 million.^[1]

At Bartica, the President has said the 1.5 MW solar farm is already supplying electricity to the township and reducing diesel consumption, with the Government claiming annual avoided fuel, maintenance and lubricant costs of approximately G$185.8 million.^[2]

At Mahdia, the 0.65 MW facility includes a 1,500-kWh battery system, is integrated with the existing mini-grid and is expected to supply approximately 935 MWh annually.

At Lethem, government reported in 2026 that the 1 MW facility had already generated more than 4,300 MWh, displaced more than 7,000 drums of diesel, and avoided more than 3,500 tonnes of CO₂ emissions.

These are encouraging figures but they also make it even more important for the Government to publish the actual generation data, rather than only projected savings and benefits.

Guyana cannot simply count solar panels and call that energy transformation.

We need to know how much electricity is actually being produced, how much is actually reaching consumers, how much diesel is actually being displaced, how much money is actually being saved and what happens to the electricity that cannot immediately be consumed.

If these solar farms are performing as the Government says they are, then there should be no difficulty publishing the generation figures, downtime, maintenance records, battery performance, diesel savings and grid-export data for every facility.

And if they are not performing as promised, the people of Guyana deserve to know that too.

We are talking about hundreds of millions and billions of dollars invested in individual facilities and an overall national programme worth more than US$83 million.

The Government owes the public a full accounting of these investments and a clear answer to the question, what exactly is going on with Guyana’s solar farms?

References

1. US$8M solar farm commissioned at Trafalgar, adds 4MW power to national grid - INews Guyana — inewsguyana.com ↩
2. Bartica to benefit from 25% reduction in electricity rate from July— President Ali - INews Guyana — inewsguyana.com ↩