Our friend the wind

Malta has three wind farm projects in the pipeline. Everybody seems to have forgotten about them. Is it because there are more pressing matters, locally and internationally, or that the national subconscious still cannot perceive them on the horizon?

The sites have long been identified: Sikka l-Bajda, off Mellieħa Bay; Wied Rini, in the limits of Baħrija; and the smallest wind farm, consisting of just five wind turbines at Ħal Far. The Sikka l-Bajda offshore project should comprise 19 turbines whereas 12 are planned for Baħrija.

The concept is simple: harnessing the wind to generate electrical power. It shall be state-of-the-art engineering science taking the form of imposing masts and turbines.

Directive 2009/28/EC, the renewables directive, is the principal legal framework through which the EU’s renewable energy targets as agreed upon by the Climate and Energy Package should be implemented. Under the directive, Malta is obliged to achieve a 10 per cent renewable energy share in gross final energy consumption by 2020, compared to Finland’s and Sweden’s 38 and 49 per cent commitments respectively. The target for Cyprus is 13 per cent.

To a high degree, Europe’s success with renewables is about hydropower. Very obvious circumstances limit Malta’s renewable energy options to solar, wind and waste.

The provisions of Directive 2009/28/EC include a flexible mechanism enabling cooperation agreements between EU member states towards joint renewable energy projects. Green power derived from such endeavours would count towards achieving the respective national mandatory targets.

The National Renewable Energy Action Plan has it that our state of play in the field of renewable energy by 2020 should be 2.4 per cent biofuel, 0.69 per cent photovoltaics, 3.48 per cent offshore wind farms, 0.61 per cent onshore wind farms, 2.5 per cent energy from waste and solar water heaters another 0.52 per cent, which tallies to 10.2.

The tenth EurObserv’ER report on the state of renewable energies in Europe gives Malta’s total renewable energy share in 2009 as 0.1 per cent compared to Finland’s 25.9 and Sweden’s 56.1. Comparisons with the high fliers in the EU league tables are odious but the figures are always a point to ponder.

EurObserv’ER’s wind power barometer gives the output from the global wind industry as having increased dramatically from the circa 2.9 gigawatts (GW) generated in 1993 to 194.5GW in 2010, with 84.3GW deriving from Europe alone.

With 44.3 per cent of the global wind turbine base installed in Europe compared to 30.1 per cent in Asia and some 22.7 per cent in North America, Europe is a world leader in the field.

China is forging its way ahead too. Global Wind Energy Council figures for 2010 are that wind turbine installations in China alone amounted to about half the global market for last year, raising China’s wind power capacity up to 42.3GW and, thus, surpassing the United States’ 40.2GW. The US experienced a drop in wind power capacity installed to circa 5.1GW from the 9.8GW in 2009.

India has increased its wind power capacity by circa 2.1GW in the same period whereas Japan registered a 0.2GW increase.

The global wind market looks promising.

The wind is a raw material and wind power is carbon-free, unless one excludes what it takes to sustain the wind turbine production industry, clearly.

Wind turbine technology fascinates the scientific mind, let alone the hands-on engineer. Noise from wind farms should not exactly be an issue as long as the turbines are suitably located, adequately designed and properly maintained. Lest we forget, in Malta we shall have state-of-the-art technology!

Suitably-located wind farms do not present shadow flicker effect problems. But what is most thrilling about wind farms is the subtle message their imagery almost invariably conveys, the breathtaking sense of wilderness and that no wind farm site can be complete unless it is housed within a vast tract of open space preferably in the middle of nowhere blending onto the horizon, be it on land or sea.

And, then, who says wind farms cannot be tourist attractions in their own right, like Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra, and this to Malta’s advantage?

The transport of the brand-new disassembled mast and turbine structures to their final sites of destination where they shall eventually operate shall offer a spectacle not to be missed.

How shall the public eye react to the blending of these structures into Malta’s skyline? Photomontages should always be viewed with a pinch of salt and aesthetics is important and, when in Malta, wind farms may perhaps produce political fall-out. But the country’s renewable energy commitments simply cannot be missed.

My eyes gaze seaward off Mellieħa Bay where, in the distance, a flock of 130-metre diameter blades rotate in style, harmoniously, as I sip a pensive pint at my favourite place beneath the sanctuary dedicated to Maria Bambina.

Nothing stays the same.

sapulis@gmail.com

The author specialises in environmental management.