By Belize Live News Staff: Remember the historic US$77 million solar deal? In August 2023, the Government of Belize and the Saudi Fund for Development signed a loan agreement to build a 60 megawatt solar energy plant, billed as a giant leap toward energy independence. Almost three years later, the plant exists only on paper.
The announcement came with all the trappings of a landmark moment. Prime Minister John Briceño signed for Belize, with Saudi Fund for Development CEO Sultan Al-Marshad signing for the Fund and Minister of State Chris Coye in attendance. The project promised a 60 megawatt solar plant plus battery energy storage, cutting an estimated 60,000 tons of carbon emissions a year, easing Belize’s reliance on imported power, stabilising supply, creating jobs, and extending electricity access to rural communities. The financing was attractive too, reportedly around 2 percent interest repaid over roughly 30 years.
The need was real then and is arguably greater now. Belize’s grid remains vulnerable to shocks, from interruptions in power imports to drought conditions affecting hydro generation, and the economy’s growth has pushed energy demand steadily upward.
Yet the years passed with no groundbreaking, no site announcement, and no construction timeline. The clearest public answer finally came in late May, when Greater Belize Media asked Minister of Public Utilities Michel Chebat about the project’s status. The Minister confirmed it has not gotten underway and revealed that the design itself is being reworked. The original all-solar concept is being restructured into a hybrid arrangement combining solar generation with battery storage, with the Minister indicating a split along the lines of forty and twenty rather than the original sixty of solar alone. “We expect that to come on stream as well,” he said, insisting the investment remains central to Belize’s long-term energy security.
While the flagship project idles, smaller and newer initiatives have raced ahead of it. Belize’s first utility-scale solar plant is now set to be a 15 megawatt facility with battery storage at Buena Vista Village, Corozal, under a power purchase agreement between Belize Electricity Limited and Blair Athol Power Company Limited signed in July 2025, with completion targeted for the end of 2026. At that very signing, the Prime Minister conceded that the Saudi-backed plan remained a work in progress. Separately, in January 2026, BEL, the Government, and the International Finance Corporation opened a competitive process for up to 80 megawatts of new solar capacity under the World Bank’s Scaling Solar program.
All of that activity is encouraging for Belize’s renewable future, but it makes the silence around the Saudi Fund project stand out even more. Key questions remain unanswered in public. Has any portion of the US$77 million been disbursed? Where will the restructured plant be located? What is the new completion target? And how does the reshaped project fit alongside the 80 megawatt procurement now underway?
None of this means the project is doomed. Redesigning it to pair solar with substantial battery storage could ultimately serve the grid better than the original concept, and concessional financing softens the cost of delay. But a project announced with fanfare as renewable energy history should not fade into a footnote, surfacing only when a reporter asks the right question.
This August will mark three years since the signing. Belizeans were promised energy independence, cleaner power, and jobs. It is time for a full public accounting of where the US$77 million solar project stands, and a firm date for when the country will finally see panels in the ground.
