Over the last few weeks Minister George Pullicino has been broadcasting (November 2) what he reckons to be the dire consequences of failure to put up an offshore wind farm at Sikka l-Bajda (SB). These warnings seem to be directed at the potential opponents of SB, who may not have shown their hand as yet. As an indication of the sort of objectors he has in mind, Minister Pullicino mentions the Leader of the Opposition and the Baħrija farmers-residents, with what he deems to be, probably correctly, their politically motivated opposition to a Baħrija wind farm.

The ministerial big stick is the constant refrain that a block on SB would lose us 40 per cent of the total renewable energy (RE) contribution needed by 2020 to meet our EU obligations. In Christian Peregin's paraphrase, there is no Plan B for wind farms.

But in fact, Minister Pullicno has been offered a Plan B, and one possibly not much inferior to Plan A. The north Gozo shore from Qbajjar to Mistra Rocks at the eastern end of San Blas bay has a strip of water inside the 20m depth contour that is suitable for a wind farm. If one were prepared to go to a 30m as on SB, or to the 35m depth the minister is rooting for at present, then the wind farm could be as large as that on SB. Even if this were not the case, wind speed measures at Ġordan lighthouse suggest that the wind resource could be better than that of SB, so that smaller size could still produce the same output as SB.

However, comparison of output cannot be treated in isolation. Should SB be blocked, we would be in the position of beggars and not choosers; so the fact that Gozo North Offshore (GNO) might have a smaller output than SB is not a valid reason for discarding the latter altogether. The minister seems to be enacting the marine wind farm equivalent of a dog in the manger: either we have a farm on SB or we have nothing.

Yet it makes sense to argue that if we miss out on that 40 per cent, we should at least be in a position in a position to claw back a half or three quarters of that from GNO, i.e. to have a real Plan B as insurance. As of now, this insurance will only involve putting up a measuring mast on the shoreline between Xwieni Bay and Qbajjar, for example. In that way, should a fatal objection materialise for SB, we would not have to start a new wind measuring campaign two years further along what the minister himself keeps describing as the short time line to 2020. In that case, a GNO measuring mast now would be an earnest of good intent. Such a move would be a far more responsible course of action than preparing to pass the buck or labelling anti-wind protesters as enemies of the people.