Herald story.
LINK

This is not good news. Many resorts have generators but it cost to run generators and I really don’t know if small restaurants even have generators? I would be making sure the restaurants you go to eat have generators. My advise is eat on the French side or if you can stay on the Frenchside.

I'm not sure why there are no renewables in the plan for electricity supply, I can only guess that for some reason there is no financing available. Engineering wise solar PV and wind could be part of the mix as they are on Saba (currently 40% renewables and planning on 60% by 2025). If a reliable electricity supply could be achieved then maybe battery electric vehicles could start to be introduced onto the island (nobody is going to have "range anxiety about their EV on SXM!).
Dave.

Sadly, I don't think that SXM has really kept up with infrastructure. They have been kicking the can down the road. And this is what happens. (My town is currently having the same problem)

Solar energy appears to be the best option for increasing renewable electricity in St. Maarten, according to TNO, which studied the energy transition in Aruba, Curaçao, and St. Maarten.
but...
there are few concrete plans for the energy transition in St. Maarten
Source: Solar energy best option for St. Maarten, TNO concludes, but no clear plans in sight
So I understand this to mean that the lack of an energy transition plan goes beyond lack of financing to include a lack of government will and/or capacity to act in this area (after all they haven't managed to even keep the existing generating infrastructure reliable).
Dave.

Just where can they put solar panels(2000 make 1 mega watt) on SXM or 20 to 30 windmills to provide 30 mega watts of power? Both of these types of renewables needs a lot of space.
You need at least 10 acres for 1 MW for Solar as far as wind mills they are large and also take up a lot of space and you would need 20 to 30 as each one provides 1.5 to 3 mega watts each.

Be sure to bring your own water with you.🙂

Solar and Wind energy discussed.
Herald LINK

Pretty bleak picture.

As one who has been belly-aching about the island’s lack of foresight re infrastructure for a minimum of at least thirty years, none of this surprises me.

The people of SXM should be outraged that so many of the described issues weren’t addressed years ago. Methinks too many people in power were interested in filling their own pockets to care about the over all well being of the island.

The good news for visitors, even those of us with fifty years of trips there, is we can choose to go or not but the good people who live there aren’t able to do so. It’s their home such as it is.

Pat--so true.

I just returned from one of my least favorite trips to SXM due to the 2-3 times daily outages combined with noisy construction across the street which made it difficult to open the windows during the outages. Having second thoughts about the January trip.

At this point, there needs to have a Moratorium on all these plans to build more hotels!! The currant system can't handle what the island has now!!!

Exactly Colour1. Less hotels...more infrastructure!

Tim--I don't blame you. I'm glad I don't have any trips planned until next year.