Letters | Sunday, 05 July 2009

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Wind farms: fancies and facts

Your report (MaltaToday, Sunday 21st June) on the scoping meetings on wind farms between MEPA and NGOs and local councils raises a number of problems.
The insistence on “socio-economic studies to assess the benefits to consumers from wind energy” seems oblivious of the fact that that would need an extensive survey of various impacts on different groups of consumers. A look at just the final price per unit generated is of little relevance. Even if wind were to provide all of our 10% target of electricity generation from renewable sources, it will have only a minor effect on the final price charged to the consumer as 90% of generation would still be coming from fossil fuels. The idea that the government may have to foot the extra wind-farm unit cost seems rather far-fetched.
In any case, the unit price arena is a bit of a snake pit. So we have a present Marsa unit cost of €c6.92 (fuel cost only!), sold at €c17-18; promised BWSC (Delimara “diesels”) units at €c6.21 (all costs), a Sikka l-Bajda unit at €c23-25, and a Blue-H (deep water) unit at not less than €c15. This last is being offered at a fixed price for the whole farm lifetime.
From another “socio-economic” angle, the citizenry should have some protection from the inflated verbal currency in use by some of its tribunes. For instance, Sandro Kraus thinks that the “small” but cheap contribution from Bahrija is not worth the “extensive impacts on the area’s agricultural holdings”. No evidence for these “extensive impacts” was produced; nor can any be deduced from the submitted plans.
A statement of the same type was the one on MEPA’s “arbitrary” choice of Bahrija. It is not MEPA’s business to choose sites and even less to measure wind speeds.There are in fact extensive measurements for Bahrija , for Gordan and Kercem on Gozo, Marfa ridge, Luqa airport, Swatar (near Dingli), Marsaxlokk, etc. As reportedly pointed out pointed out by Tonio Sant (scoping meeting minutes), wind speed is not the only consideration that goes into choice of site. Ironically, that statement, while correct, did obscure the fact that as far as Sikka l-Bajda (SB) was concerned, the only wind speed “information” available were rough estimates derived from measurements on distant sites. So wind speed measurements at Gordan lighthouse – which were suggesting a better wind resource off the north Gozo shore – could not be allowed to upset any political applecart.. While it is correct to say to say that Gordan measurements will provide an over-optimistic picture for turbines placed off shore between Marsalforn and Dahlet Qorrot, they are still good for a credible indication, and certainly a more credible indication that that used for SB. It must not be forgotten that the predicted wind farm output ( usually given in the equivalent number of households), must be based on the installed power and the assumed wind speed.
As for the “size” advantage of the SB farm, Mott Macdonald, the UK consultants, insisted that there are no economies of scale to be made on SB, as the wind resource is not good enough. But even if one disagreed with that – and Tonio Sant clearly does disagree – the fact is that between the SB report by Minister Pullicino’s committee and the launch press conference, the “fence” on SB had moved from the 20m depth contour to the 30m one. That increased the projected power of the farm by 100% and the cost by 140%. Now if 30m depth is used as the “fence” on offshore north Gozo, the installed power can move well beyond the 25MW-30MW mentioned by Sant. Turbines can be placed further from the shore, so that the fear of Marsalforn citizens being driven crazy by noisy turbines, never very real, will vanish completely; and there will also be less shielding from the Gozo coast. Of course, SB is not immune from shielding; an arc from slightly North of West, round to at least South is shielded by Gozo and Malta.
Talk of Gozo offshore being exploited as part of eco-Gozo must be taken with a pinch of salt. The only credible promise is one backed by a quick start-up of wind speed measurements in the area, onshore west of Gordan and offshore to the east.

Edward Mallia
Attard

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