Government ignored Edward Mallia’s advice to consider Bahrija and the north shore of Gozo as alternatives to the Sikka l-Bajda reef. Now it faces another two-year delay because of a nearby bird colony, JAMES DEBONO says

Physicist and energy expert Edward Mallia had advised the government last July to consider two alternative sites before rushing to choose the Sikka l-Bajda reef as the site of Malta’s first wind farm.
Last week Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi announced plans for an offshore wind farm at Sikka l-Bajda, less than 2km from Malta’s largest bird conservation programme.
Prof. Mallia formed part of an advisory committee appointed by Minister George Pullicino to examine the viability of the Sikka l-Bajda site.
The sites proposed by Mallia were the Wied Rini mast farm in Bahrija, which already hosts 20 disused telecommunication masts, and an offshore site on the north shore of Gozo.
Back in 2006, Mallia had warned that the government’s decision to rule out land-based and near-shore wind farms in favour of an untested deep-water technology “was a way of saying we are doing something, even if in reality we are opting for a solution which cannot be considered realistic in the immediate future.”
Although the government has now lifted its veto on wind farms on land and near the shore, Mallia fears “a repeat performance” with the government preferring an offshore site located just 2km away from a bird breeding colony to other, less problematic onshore or near-shore sites.
BirdLife Malta have already expressed concern on the impact of a wind farm at Sikka l-Bajda on the Yelkouan shearwater breeding colony at L-Ahrax Tal-Mellieha, which hosts some 10% of the seabird’s world population.
According to BirdLife, a two-year study will be required to assess whether the proposed wind farm would have a negative impact on the shearwater’s breeding patterns.
“While the deep-water wind farm has receded to a more distant future, pressures to do something have multiplied from various directions,” Mallia wrote in his report. “How have we responded? We put in a repeat performance, in Doh-minor this time. Without much attempt to look at the elements of the situation in a holistic manner… our lodestar is now a wind farm on Sikka l-Bajda.”
Although Mallia participated in the drafting of the report on the viability of Sikka l-Bajda, the physicist wanted the advisory committee to consider alternative sites.
“The problems associated with using Sikka l-Bajda for an offshore wind farm, while by no means insurmountable, suggested that the committee should, by way of providing valuable advice, look for possible specific alternatives which might have fewer problems,” Mallia wrote.
But since there was no consensus among the committee members on this point, Mallia proceeded to write his own appendix to the report commissioned by the government.
Mallia contends that the analysis of Sikka l-Bajda’s potential confirmed the conclusion of an earlier report by the British consultants Mott Macdonald, that a land-based wind farm was preferable to one at sea.
Mott Macdonald, the foreign consultants brought in by government in 2005, had recommended that Malta should start with a medium-sized land capacity and proceed for an offshore facility at a later stage.
Although the British experts deemed Sikka l-Bajda as the best site for an offshore wind farm, they only considered it to be “marginally suitable” for wind exploitation.
With a wind capacity factor estimated at 25% it was deemed to compare poorly with similar wind farms in the North Sea, which have a capacity factor of 40%.
Now the government risks wasting valuable time on assessing the impacts of the Sikka l-Bajda site.
This would require extensive wind speed measurements; base line studies on the impact on the marine environment; and the collection of data on the projects’ impact on the shearwater bird breeding colony in Rdum tal-Madonna.
Another probable delay will probably be caused by the long waiting lists for ordering the gigantic wind turbines required for this wind farm. International order books for 1MW to 3MW turbines are full at the moment.
One of the sites proposed by Mallia is the Wied Rini mast farm, on which 20 trellis masts, set on four square-metre concrete bases, are already in place. Some of these masts are 50 metres high. Only one is currently in use.
Extensive wind speed measurements were already taken in the past, suggesting that the site has a good potential.
According to a previous study, a farm of 24 750kW turbines with a rotor diameter of 45 metres each would produce 2.8% of the electricity generated in 2003.
Unlike Sikka l-Bajda, the site poses no problems to bird population as the area is well outside the circling zone for raptors settling at Buskett.
The time taken to approve such a project would be far shorter than the lengthier procedures required for off shore sites, and 750kW turbines are easier to order than larger ones.
The advantage of Bahrija over other land sites is that the visual impact of setting up the turbines would not be any worse than that that of the masts which are already dominate the area. The area is also currently used for the dumping of construction waste.
Most crucially, according to Mallia onshore wind energy is already significantly cheaper than that generated by burning fossil fuels.
The other offshore location preferred by Mallia is a strip on the north shore of Gozo stretching eastward from Ras il-Qbajjar towards Ras il-Qala, stopping at Mistra Rocks just south of Wied San Blas.
Wind conditions are deemed by Mallia to be distinctly better than Sikka il-Bajda.
Unlike Sikka l-Bajda, where wind measurements still have to be taken, measurements have already been taken during the past years at the nearby Jordan white house.
A farm of 24 turbines of 750kW, in the measured Jordan wind regime, was calculated to produce 3.7% of electricity generated in 2003.

The Sikka l-Bajda option
When announcing the Sikka l-Bajda project Gonzi said that this would provide 4% of Malta’s energy needs and will thus provide clean energy for 21,000 households.
This is still 6% short of Malta’s target to increase the use of renewable energy to 10% by 2020 – an indication that a farm at Sikka l-Bajda will be supplemented by onshore wind farm and a greater use of solar energy.
This amount of energy produced by this wind farm will offset the increase of energy demand by Smart City, which is projected to be 3.6% of the national electricity generation capacity.
To produce the 50MW needed to reach the 4% target a wind farm at Sikka l-Bajda would require 17 gigantic 3MW turbines with 80-metre diameter rotors.
Alternatively if larger 5MW turbines are used, only 10 turbines will be required.
These estimates are based on the Mott Macdonald calculation of a 25% wind capacity rate for Sikka l-Bajda. According to this report, similar wind farms in the North Sea which have a capacity factor of 40%.
Large clusters of offshore wind turbines are becoming increasingly common in countries like Denmark.
Elsewhere, a 120MW offshore wind farm in Holland uses sixty 2MW wind turbines located at a distance of about 23km off the Dutch coast. This windfarm provides energy for 142,000 households.
These estimates are based on Mott Macdonald calculation of a 25% wind capacity rate for Sikka l-Bajda. According to this report, similar wind farms in the North Sea have a capacity factor of 40%.
Sikka l-Bajda’s low wind capacity is attributed to its proximity to the shore and its lack of exposure to the prevailing northwest winds.
Since the wind farm will be 2km away from the coast, the visual impact from Rdum il-Madonna will not be significant.

Rising demand for wind energy
By opting for wind energy Malta could join the increasing number of European nations taking this path.
Demand for wind energy is rising amid effort by industrialised nations to reduce their dependency on oil.
The market for European wind power capacity broke new records in 2006, according to the annual statistics issued by the European Wind Energy Association. 7,588MW of wind power capacity, worth some €9 billion, was installed in the EU in 2006: an increase of 23% compared to 2005.
In 1997, the average nominal power of the wind turbines erected in Germany and Denmark was around 600kW. Nowadays, the first prototypes of 5MW turbines are being erected, with rotor diameters of more than 120 metres. Large wind turbines are generally more economical, especially for offshore applications.
The cost of wind energy is now considered to be at a par with the cost of fossil fuels: producing a megawatt-hour of energy from land-based wind turbines is now is €80-85, versus €80 euros/MWh for gas-fired plants and €85 euros/MWh for oil-fired plants.
But one also has to consider the expense of transmission lines to connect wind farms to population centers, and the intermittency of wind energy which makes it impossible for a country to depend exclusively on this source of power.

Onshore vs offshore wind farms
Onshore wind systems have cheaper foundations and their integration with the electrical grid network is cheaper than that required for large offshore wind farms. Maintenance and operation are also cheaper.
There is also a potential for small micro-wind turbines to cater for local needs without incurring a vast capital expenses. On the other hand offshore wind turbines have big advantages over onshore ones. They can be built a lot bigger and there is a lot more wind out at sea rather than on land. But this depends a lot on prevailing wind conditions.
Sikka l-Bajda was deemed by Mott Macdonald to have much less potential than wind farms in the North Sea.

Environmental impacts of wind power
Wind power does not produce CO2, sulfur dioxide, mercury, or any other type of air pollution associated with fossil fuel power sources.
Danger to birds is often the main complaint against the installation of a wind turbine. However, studies show that the number killed is negligible compared to the number that die as a result of other human activities such as traffic, hunting, electrical power transmission and high-rise buildings.
In the UK, while one bird is killed per turbine per year; 10 million per year are killed by cars alone.
While supporting the development of renewable energy, Birdlife International recommends that wind farms are not sited in Important Bird Areas (IBAs).
Aesthetic objections are often raised against the siting of windfarms. In 2006 the Maltese government had ruled out land-based windfarms because of their impact on the landscape. But veteran environmentalist Edward Mallia insists that visual impact should be determined by photomontages, and not by casual remarks or horror stories.

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