Government plans wind farms

The government is planning to set up offshore wind farms in a bid to reduce Malta's dependency on oil for electricity generation, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi announced yesterday evening.

Addressing a press conference towards the end of a European Union-Latin America summit in Vienna, which was overshadowed by problems related to world energy resources, Dr Gonzi said it had clearly emerged that energy has become "the headache of the world" as countries across continents expressed concern at unprecedented oil price hikes.

Asked by The Times how the government would concretely reduce the country's exclusive dependency on oil for electricity generation, Dr Gonzi said the government would be issuing an international call for tenders for the installation of offshore wind farms, having explored the alternative energy possibilities at the country's disposal. The Prime Minister said he had visited a Belgian company which designs and builds offshore farms following the Ecofin summit in Brussels last week.

"This company is about to start a project to install 60 windmills 20 miles off the Belgian coast. The farm is to cater for 300,000 households. I am told that the sea cannot be deeper than 25 metres. Obviously, that's a problem for Malta, but we are not discouraged," Dr Gonzi said.

Such a project would entail a large capital expense, though the government was exploring the best way to finance such a project.

"Though plans are still not definite, the formula may be that a private investor forks out the capital expense while the government buys the electricity generated," he said. Dr Gonzi said the main purpose of alternative energy was to reduce dependency on oil, emphasising that the wind farm project would not necessarily reduce the country's energy production costs. "We often forget that alternative energy costs much more than what we spend to generate electricity with oil, even at today's record prices," he warned.

The government is not excluding tapping EU structural funds for the wind farms.

"We are also exploring the possibility of using liquid natural gas and connecting Malta to the European grid in different ways," Dr Gonzi said.

The government had been studying alternative energy solutions for around two years, Dr Gonzi said, adding that a technical document on alternative energy possibilities for Malta was being finalised to be published soon.