The Mepa Board has rejected an application – submitted six years ago by the former government – to construct a wind farm on Is-Sikka l-Bajda. The application was turned down on environmental grounds because of the impact the project would have on the marine environment and bird colonies at near-by L-Aħrax tal-Mellieħa.
Rdum tal-Madonna is a Special Protected Area and a Special Area of Conservation principally because of its important colony of Yelkouan Shearwaters. These birds, together with Cory’s Shearwaters, are species of high conservation value. They breed in and around the area of the proposed wind farm. Despite the fact that bunkering already occurs there, the impact on the bird species, marine life and the marine environment could not be effectively mitigated.
Although unsaid – and inevitably a subjective judgment – there were also considerable public reservations about the visual impact on the natural landscape of such an intrusive project covering an offshore area of about 11 square kilometres in water varying in depth between 10 and 35 metres. The wind farm would have consisted of up to 19 giant turbines with a maximum output of 95 megawatts yielding, it was claimed, up to 40 per cent of the renewable energy target which Malta needs to meet EU commitments.
The wind farm saga has hung fire for four years under the Nationalists and two under this government. The Nationalist Administration had struggled to take the steps necessary to pursue wind farms as a possible renewable energy source, investing thousands of euros in assessing their viability. Its plan had been to have one off-shore wind farm and two land-based.
Right up to the last general election they had denied any slippage in plans and emphasised that studies to establish the viability of the offshore wind farm at Mellieha were still underway since without it the two onshore wind farms would not be viable.
In the run-up to the general election, the Labour Party had committed itself to adhere to the European Union’s targets on renewable energy, but also to re-consider the “mix” of energy sources to achieve them.
It now appears that this government is focusing all its efforts for meeting its renewable energy targets on a mix of use of photovoltaics, solar, thermal and biofuels. This fits with its long-held scepticism about the feasibility of wind energy and its wish for the country to focus on solar energy.
Given its agreement with China’s Shanghai Electric to develop and build renewable energy infrastructure in Europe, a move which holds considerable attraction for China’s debt-fuelled solar energy industry, the Mepa Board’s decision is not surprising. It dove-tails conveniently with the government’s new-found commercial contacts with China.
This government inherited a bleak situation on renewable energy from its predecessor. Malta’s performance has been abysmally slow. With only about 1.4 per cent of energy being produced from renewable sources, Malta is firmly stuck at the bottom of the EU league table.
However, the government’s target to provide 10 per cent of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2020 still stands and is inescapable. Although action is in hand to replace our fossil fuel-burning energy plants with less polluting sources of energy, the need to back this up with substantial alternative, renewable energy is still absent.
The bottom line is that Malta’s efforts to meet the EU target has been hampered by lack of decision on the creation of wind-farms and insufficient investment in solar energy. The time for further prevarication is now over.