Kaizenlog

(Friday, May 9, 2008)
Wind blowing good

Author: Harry Vassallo

Wind energy is a comparatively low-tech business. In money terms it
has become big business with the major operators rapidly going global
in the backwash of the oil price tsunami. The days of Mop and Pop
operations begging for attention from banks and governments are gone
for good. Oil companies and national energy generators have entered
the field, first granting added legitimacy to the pioneers and then
buying them out. It’s not a conspiracy, it’s a process. The wind
energy generation market can only get bigger and bigger.

Meanwhile, the basics remain the same. For every site the wind energy
potential is predetermined. Some sites are better than others but
their energy generation potential will remain the same subject only to
improvements in technology. Wind energy is a natural resource,
renewable but with limitations. The energy potential of any given area
will not change.

The best sites in all of Malta’s 315 square kilometres are well
documented. Various assessments of other available sites have been
made and the limitations noted. The government has determined its
policy on the basis of inputs from its various agencies excluding
land-based turbines, indeed banishing them to an offshore location
many miles out to sea.

It is possible to set up a wind turbine anywhere. They are not sited
everywhere simply because it does not make economic sense to place
them where the cost will eliminate the returns.

Nobody except the Maltese government has thought of siting them miles
out to sea in depths of 90 metres. In effect, the Maltese government’s
policy is a yes which means no.

With crude oil prices spiking to $120 a barrel, even the Maltese
government’s stonewalling will have to give sooner or later. Its
published policy is based on a document more than 10 years old.
Chances are that its revision has already been done. If not, it must
be imminent.

Major wind energy operators seeking new investments have consistently
turned up on our doorstep in the past few decades simply by following
the scent of oil. Malta is one of very few jurisdictions 100 per cent
dependent on oil for its electricity generation. It is a beacon for
those who build, sell or operate wind turbines. Our government has
built an almost unique expertise in turning them away.

Why we have been so obstinate for so long is a very interesting
question. It should be a burning question for everybody who has a
water or electricity bill to pay. It should be a matter of fiery
political debate. It may even be a matter inviting investigation by
the Auditor General or even the police Economic Crime Unit.

Leaving that matter aside, my reading of the present situation is that
something is about to give. The balance is tipping against those with
interests in the status quo.

With the prime sites owned by the government, all those jockeying for
a place in the race face risks not usually associated with wind energy
projects. Who will nab the best sites? How? How will that victory
affect the other players? With our track record of contested tender
issues on major projects, we can look forward to yet another spectacle
of multinationals locking horns over a Maltese project and becoming
entangled in our domestic interest labyrinth.

The exploitation of Malta’s potential oil and gas resources is well
within the government’s exclusive economic zone. The rest of us are
told next to nothing and we only mumble and speculate. The
exploitation of stone is a mess of national proportions in which the
word sustainability is religiously excluded in deference to the
construction industry while water exploitation is in a state of
fully-documented anarchy. Now the wind is picking up.

In many ways wind energy is a fourth dimension coming into being in an
era altogether new. Will the sharks take over or will the
Administration ensure that long-terms national interests are properly
safeguarded? Is the concept still alive? Will a deal go down
effectively leasing out Malta’s wind energy generation potential to a
multinational, which will be able to sell it anywhere in Europe thanks
to Malta’s expected connection to the European grid while trading the
carbon credits it makes on the global market? How good will that deal
be for me and you?

Can you be moved to take an interest in all this before you are
presented with a fait accompli? Is it too involved for you? Or are you
convinced that taking an interest is pointless because, come the next
election, this issue will be nowhere near the political agenda?

The ban on wind power on land in Malta and to a large extent in the
shallow seas immediately offshore is maintained on the say so of the
Malta Tourism Authority. The dam is about to burst.

While high-rises sprout like mushrooms across the country dooming
thousands of new apartments to long-term energy inefficiency and
casting many of their neighbours into unprofitable shade, the MTA was
not asked to voice an opinion as to the effect of these monsters on
the country’s looks. On wind energy it has been allowed to set a veto.
Not for much longer.

Of course, we have many world records in being the last to do the
obvious and I am confident that we can continue to maintain them for a
considerable time beyond reason but something oily tells me that our
wind energy ban is about to be lifted. It’s an ill wind that blows
nobody any good but it will take luck for most of us to get to smile
about it when the turbines finally spin over us. Good luck everyone.

www.alternattiva.org.mt, www.adgozo.com

Dr Vassallo is chairman of Alternattiva Demokratika - the Green party.

___________________________________________

Article may be viewed at:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20080509/opinion/wind-blowin
g-good