Onshore wind energy ‘most viable technology’ for Malta

Gerald Fenech

With the debate currently raging over whether the new energy
tariff prices are sustainable in the long run, it is becoming even
more apparent that the need to switch to some sort of alternative
energy for our power requirements is becoming ever more
paramount.
The government has acknowledged this situation and has finally
committed itself to the building of an offshore wind farm which
will cost in the region of EUR 130 million although according to
some experts in the field, this commitment should have taken
place a long time ago.
Speaking to The Malta Business Weekly, Ing. Marco Cremona, a
consultant in the field of alternative energy explained that a
report had already been commissioned way back in 2005 to
indicate how Malta could reach an alternative energy target of 5
per cent by 2010 but nothing was done after the findings were
made public.
“Way back in July 2005, the Malta Resources Authority (the
energy regulator) had commissioned a study by English experts
(Mott MacDonald) to establish how Malta could reach the 5 per
cent target of renewable energy by 2010. This report was tabled
in Parliament in March 2007. Mott MacDonald assessed the
potential of various technologies for Malta such as large/small
scale, on-shore/ offshore wind energy, as well as photovoltaics
(PVs).
Probably the most interesting part of the report is Table 2-1
which lists the Average Cost of Power (ACP) for each of the
assessed technology for Malta. The results are shown below:

Large Onshore Wind 51.4 Eur/MWh

Large Offshore Wind (shallow sea) 72.7
60 kW Medium Wind 102.4
1 kW Micro Wind 118.3
3 kWp PV 334.5
Clearly large onshore wind energy is the most economically-viable
technology for Malta; it was already viable in 2005 before the
price of oil started increasing. However, the Maltese Government
churned out a multitude of excuses as to why onshore and
shallow offshore wind energy was considered a No-Go for Malta to
the effect that we have hardly made any progress in this field in
the last decade”.
Ing. Cremona said that even if government was skeptical on the
possibility of a wind farm, the intervening years up to now should
have been used to collect the necessary data on wind and
renewable energy to assess its economic viability in the long run.
“Notwithstanding government's skepticism on wind energy and
renewable energy in general, I would have at least expected
government to start collecting wind data at the locations that had
been identified as being potential sites for onshore and shallow
offshore wind in 2005. This data is critical for the design for such
expensive installations. To my knowledge, apart from some
sporadic data collected independently by the Institute for Energy
Technology (IET), Malta has no data on which
to base investments costing hundreds of millions of euros. Not
only have we not benefitted from RES to date, but it would be
foolish to rush into such investments without having carried out
basic measurements”.
He also insisted that the cost of alternative energy at production
is remarkably cheaper than what is currently being produced by
Enemalta
“Minister Austin Gatt has recently informed us that the cost for
Enemalta to produce one unit of electricity is 180 Eur/MWh (0.18
Eur/kWh), that is, almost 4 times more expensive than the cost of
electricity from an onshore wind farm. At this astronomical cost of
electricity generation from our power stations, all forms of wind
energy make economic sense for Malta, including (domestic-size)
micro-wind turbines. Clearly if we want to reduce the cost of
electricity in this country in the medium term, investments in
onshore wind energy is a must; shallow sea offshore wind energy
is also much cheaper than conventional electricity generation (but
is around 40-50% more expensive than onshore wind)”.
Ing. Cremona is also perplexed at the u-turn conducted by the
government on this crucial issue finding some clues in the Draft
renewable Energy Policy for Malta which outlines visual impact as
one of the more serious implications of eventual wind farm
construction.
“The million dollar question is - why has government discarded
onshore and shallow offshore wind energy in the last 4-5
years? The mind boggles.
Some clues lie in the Draft Renewable Energy Policy for Malta
published in August 2006. With regard to land-based wind farms
this document concluded that "considering the enormous visual
and other impacts which will dominate the Maltese skyline, and
considering the very small impact of this application of this
technology at practical levels will have on the energy mix and the
energy economy of these islands, Government considers that the
construction of large-scale wind farms on land is unjustified, and
so no such farms will be authorized. On the option of a shallow
depth offshore wind farm at Is-Sikka l-Bajda (preferred site), the
2006 policy document said that "current analysis indicates
that disadvantages of this mode of RES exploitation may
outweigh its disadvantages". But alas, two years down the line,
both a large onshore wind farm and a large shallow-depth
offshore wind farm are back on the cards! “, he said
However Ing. Cremona thinks that the government’s u-turn back
to the consideration of onshore and shallow-sea offshore energy
is welcome although precious time has unfortunately been lost.
“One cannot but recall that after (superficially and short-
sightedly) dismissing all forms of renewable energy, government
then put forward the absurd concept of deep offshore wind
energy - the consequence of which was the stalling of any plans
for viable renewable energy generation for the best of 3 years.
Consequently Malta has registered no noticeable progress in
renewable energy generation and reduced its target from 5% RES
by 2010 to a miserly 0.31% (0.24% is to come from the biogas
component of the Sant Antnin Waste Treatment Plant). The
government now seems to have discarded deep offshore wind
energy, and embraced onshore and shallow-sea offshore wind
energy - a welcome U-turn in my opinion. However I am
disappointed to note that it seems that these critically important
decisions involving hundreds of millions of euros in investments
(and similarly hundreds of millions of euros pumped out of the
country in oil purchases every year due to inaction on renewable
energy) are taken at the whims of politicians and in
complete disregard of the recommendations of experts (ironically
paid by the taxpayer). Over the last 5 years we have
invested hundreds of thousands of euros in reports and
consultancies, but have nothing to show for in terms of RES
installations or initiatives”.
Ing. Cremona also reveals that no public perception study on the
impact of wind farms has as yet been carried out.
“In 2005, Mott MacDonald strongly recommended that MRA
"immediately" carry out a public perception study on onshore
wind farms in Malta. This study was never carried out. In view of
government's recent frenzy for wind energy, are we to assume
that government will be building wind farms in complete
disregard of public opinion?”, he concludes.