"The light that comes from wisdom never goes out"
Schools evacuated due to toxic gas. Smelly tap water at home. Tourist operators and fishers struggling to stay in business. Job losses. Power outages affecting tens of thousands of people …
Continue reading “After 13 years, no end in sight for Caribbean sargassum invasion”
In the quiet seaside village of Capesterre on Marie-Galante island in Guadeloupe on April 18, 2023, the air-quality monitoring institute Gwad’Air issued a “red alert” to warn people away from …
Continue reading “Sargassum blamed for ‘airborne poisoning outbreak’ in French islands”
The 2023 sargassum season started early at the Bolongo Bay Beach Resort on St. Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands. Around the end of March, staff launched the response …
Continue reading “Caribbean resorts and tourism operators pay a high price for sargassum”
With its seaside villas, luxury resorts and yachting anchorages, Virgin Gorda is known for laidback luxury. But last August, the island’s residents started complaining about the foetid odour of their …
Continue reading “Infrastructure woes and foetid tap water in paradise”
During more than half a century of working as a fisherman in Jamaica, Richard Osbourne has seen the industry steadily decline in the face of pollution, climate change, overfishing and …
Continue reading “Seaweed piles on problems for Jamaica fishers”
For more than 20 years, Mexican biologist Dr. María del Carmen García Rivas has led a crusade to protect the coral lining the Yucatan Peninsula in the Caribbean Sea. As …
Continue reading “Sargassum is wreaking havoc on Caribbean ecosystems”
Biofuel. Bricks. Paper. Beauty products. A carbon capture system. Many Caribbean entrepreneurs see an unprecedented economic opportunity in the sargassum that has regularly swamped the region since 2011. But despite …
Sharon-Flax Brutus, a resident of Virgin Gorda, vividly remembers lying on a boat and travelling to Tortola for emergency medical help while going through a miscarriage and thinking, “I hope …
Continue reading “Leaked report details healthcare crisis on sister islands”
More than two years after his company won a $4.6 million contract to build a major solar plant on Anegada, American developer Rob Wallace Jr. broke ground last December alongside …
Continue reading “With Power52 boss in bankruptcy, Anegada solar farm’s future unclear”
In July 2020, the BVI Electricity Corporation announced the winner of a $4.6 million contract to build a solar plant on Anegada: Power52 Clean Energy Access, a Maryland company headed …
Continue reading “A tale of two Power52s: One company bid, another got the contract”
When Alonso Alvarez was bidding for the contract to build the Anegada solar farm in 2020, he felt that something wasn’t right. The process dragged on longer than usual, and …
Continue reading “As Fahie advisor, Skelton-Cline pushed for Power52 before tender”
The Beacon had been requesting a copy of the Anegada solar contract for more than a year when the BVI Electricity Corporation finally responded in February. Its answer: a hard …
Claude Skelton-Cline, a consultant hand-picked by then-Premier Andrew Fahie shortly after the 2019 general election, claimed in a series of reports that he met with Power52 officials before and during …
Continue reading “TIMELINE: The premier, the contractor and the consultant”
As Premier Andrew Fahie ushered the Integrity in Public Life Act through the House of Assembly in December, he insisted that no one had forced his government to bring forward …
When Donald De Castro was a boy in the 1940s, mangroves lined the shore and cays in front of his family’s small waterfront home in Road Town. “We used to …
Continue reading “Mangrove destruction leaves VI ever more vulnerable to climate change”
Lobsters are cannibals. Their larval development is long and complex, and they are voracious feeders. For decades, these three challenges have thwarted scientists and entrepreneurs seeking what has been called …
British entrepreneur Giles Cadman received bad news in early 2020. That January, the Virgin Islands Planning Authority rejected his company’s proposal to build a nearly three-acre lobster farm beside the …
Continue reading “Landowners ‘dismayed’ over approval for lobster farm that was previously denied”
In a series of 2017 Facebook videos, British entrepreneur Giles Cadman stands beside the ocean and describes his company’s plan to build a lobster farm next to the protected Beef …
Continue reading “How many lobsters? Company’s numbers, plans shift”
British entrepreneur Giles Cadman told the Beacon that he is the “ultimate beneficial owner” of Caribbean Sustainable Fisheries, the Virgin Islands-based company behind the planned East End lobster farm. He …
After a reception celebrating the start of classes at the Power52 Caribbean Energy Institute on Jan. 18, Darrell Ruan Jr. and Kelwyn Lindsay Faulkner were excited to begin their journey …
Continue reading “With no solar grid in sight, Anegada students struggle to repay debts”
Though Rob Wallace Jr.’s forthcoming projects in the Virgin Islands present a new opportunity for the Power52 brand, he brings with him more than a decade of legal and …
Continue reading “Maryland solar contractor brings with him ten years of legal troubles”
The ritual was familiar to any Virgin Islands journalist. Before awarding a major contract in past years, the BVI Electricity Corporation typically would call a press conference where BVIEC officials …
Continue reading “With no sealed bids, tender process for Anegada solar was highly unusual”
When the three Power52 founders talk publicly about their endeavours, they often refer to their organisation simply as “Power52.” But at least two separate entities have collaborated under the brand …
Continue reading “The faces of Power52: Multiple entities, one brand”
After a United States company won a contract last June to build a major solar grid on Anegada, Virgin Islands leaders defended the choice even though it sidelined two local …
Continue reading “BVIEC bypassed VI solar firms for US bidder accused of fraud, debt”
SPECIAL REPORT Last fall, government was faced with a seemingly insurmountable task: disposing of unprecedented mountains of garbage left over from Hurricane Irma. But officials did not launch a tender …
Continue reading “Government’s pick to clean up VI? An unlicensed firm tied to $500k lawsuit”
