The planning authority yesterday turned down an application for the erection of a wind farm at Is-Sikka l-Bajda off Mellieħa on environmental grounds.
All board members voted for the refusal except Ryan Callus, the Opposition’s nominee on the Mepa board. He asked how the country would reach its renewable energy targets if wind energy was scrapped, since this was the only offshore site identified as feasible.
The planning directorate argued that the permit application, submitted by the former government in 2009, should be refused because the marine area was protected and surrounded a Special Protected Area and a Special Area of Conservation.
Further human intervention would have adverse impacts on the avifauna and marine ecology of the area, running counter to the Structure Plan, and mitigation measures would not be sufficient to address the impact, according to the directorate.
The area hosts important colonies of protected bird species of international importance – the Cory’s Shearwater and the Yelkouan Shearwater. The latter was the focus of a €1 million EU-funded project for research and protection of its habitat.
While environmental considerations seemed to be the basis for the decision, the main adverse impacts highlighted in presentations were based on the wind farm cutting through a bunkering area, navigational routes having to be diverted and a fish farm in the area needing to relocate, even though the farm is obliged to move further away from shore regardless.
Mr Callus in fact argued that the negative impacts listed in the Environmental Impact Assessment were “hard to believe” considering that the process had been stopped before further needed studies were concluded.
He said efforts to address the threats to the marine environment and biodiversity should have been made before the decision fell on Mepa’s lap. “This is a mission not accomplished. Mitigation factors should have been tried and tested. Only then can we decide,” Mr Callus said.
Former resources minister George Pullicino, who was among the public following proceedings, adamantly defended the project saying the list of environmental impacts listed seemed to consider the area as virgin land when this was in effect a bunkering site that probably caused more environmental damage than a wind farm.
Together with shadow minister Marthese Portelli, Mr Pullicino argued the project was essential for Malta to reach its renewable energy targets.
While the government had declared a shift to solar energy, it was already clear this would not be enough to reach 10 per cent renewable energy by 2020.
The planning directorate argued for refusal of the application because the marine area is protected
The wind farm, with 19 turbines, would have yielded some 40 per cent of that target. The site, he said, had been selected by experts who viewed it as the only option available.
Rejecting it would effectively be rejecting wind energy in general.
Marthese Portelli, shadow minister for energy, said this was a premature decision.
Mepa could not decide on this case in isolation, she said, because the country was bound by the decision and would have difficulty meeting EU targets.
Controversy over the fact that the EIA had been stopped led to Mepa chairman Vince Cassar, who is also Mepa Environment Director, to admit that he had been the one who recommended its termination.
He said the negative environmental impacts clearly showed it was a “no-go”.
“Why waste more time and money on consultants and experts?” Mr Cassar said.