This year, as in previous years, the Institute for Energy Technology (IET) of the University of Malta hosted students from the College of Integrated Science and Technology (ISAT) of the James Madison University, Virginia in the United States.  Dr. Jonathan Miles who initiated the venture stated that the summer session in Malta is fast becoming a firm favourite with ISAT students.  So what is prompting American students to take a three-credit project in Energy with of our Institutes?  These youngsters may be partly allured by the sea and sun attributes of the Maltese Islands but in essence, the scope of the summer session has deeper roots.  In contrast to conventional B.Sc. Degree courses, the ISAT curriculum prepares its students for careers in front line hi-tech industry back in the USA.

This year a number of mainframe projects were designed by IET researchers for Summer Session ‘99.  The common denominator of all these projects was energy and its impact on the environment with an emphasis on environmentally friendly technologies.  Building upon experience gained at the Institute over the last five years and keeping in mind the current European scenario, it was only natural for Wind Power to be included as a key project on this year’s curriculum.  Malta still has a long way to go to meet its commitments in the renewable energy sector.  No energy policy, local or otherwise, will be complete without the inclusion of wind energy as a sustainable and environmentally friendly power generation option.

All over the world, wind generated electricity is competing favourably with unsubsidised conventionally generated energy; that means energy coming from power stations burning fossil fuels.  Also noteworthy is the fact that wind is free, clean, and far ‘greener’ than its counterparts.  In regions enjoying good wind conditions wind is also cost effective, making it a financially attractive enterprise even for private investors willing to become Independent Power Producers (IPP’s).

Modern wind turbines can easily support a local power station with individual machines currently in production rated at anything up to 1,500,000 W (1.5MW).  Such wind turbines now have life expectancies in excess of 20 years whilst operating at appreciably high capacity factors.

To substantiate this scenario and determine the feasibility of a typical wind project on the Maltese islands, this year’s study tackled a Wind Energy Feasibility Assessment.  In essence this research concentrated on determining the wind potential of a site on the North West side of the archipelago and evaluating multi-disciplinary issues relating to a hypothetical wind farm located there.

One of the prime determinants for a sustainable wind farm is obviously the wind profile.  For starters, ISAT students had the opportunity to work with the WAsP program (Wind Atlas and Applications Program).  WAsP is an internationally acclaimed and proven simulation program capable of building the long term wind climate for candidate sites based upon their topography, exposure to the winds and other site-specific geographical characteristics.  The next step involved evaluating other less evident, but equally important parameters typically encountered with a project of this type.  Information coming from multiple sources such as the European Best Practice Guidelines for Wind Energy Development, topographical maps, and published technical notes on the local wind profile, were gleaned for relevant detail.  Working on these leads environmental, infrastructural, sociological, and technical considerations were identified and weighted in the local context.  Aspects such as the site’s proximity to human habitation, availability of a supportive electrical grid network, and ease of access for heavy transport in the erection and decommissioning stages, are but a few of the myriad details examined.  Field work using global positioning system (GPS) hand-held units, digital cameras and portable laptop computers enabled the students to execute a precise and effective site surveying and simulation exercise.

As always the items attracting greatest interest with such a project are the results insofar as technical expectancies and economic feasibility are concerned.  The hypothetical wind farm as proposed this year consists of nine 600,000 W (600 kW) medium-size wind turbines each having a hub height of 45 m above ground level.  The turbine array runs roughly on a North Easterly to South Westerly axis across the selected site in order to reap the benefits of the prevailing winds in this area.  Once the optimal wind turbine layout had been established, the actual machine positions were fixed in relation to the topography.  The turbines’ operational characteristics and energy yields were simulated using wind conditions deriving from measured and predicted wind speed and direction data relating to local sites.  In Malta, a wind farm on this scale would be capable of producing an average 17 million kWh/annum.  More quantitatively this energy would cater for between 3,000 to 4,000 of our households.  Computer software made it possible to go as far as creating a visual representation of the hypothetical wind turbine array as beheld by a potential visitor.

Also investigated was the economic sense of such a venture; a keystone which would make or break any such enterprise.  Factors such as the capital expenditure to purchase and install the wind turbines, operation and maintenance costs throughout the plant’s lifetime, and de-commissioning and re-landscaping of the site after closure of the wind farm were all included in a Life Cycle Costing exercise along with other economic parameters.  The scope of this was to establish a realistic price for wind-generated electricity.  Based upon these expectancies, the Cost of Energy for a similarly sized wind farm in Malta today would be between Lm 0.03 - 0.04 per kWh generated.

The results attained by JMU students under the guidance of IET researchers should make the Maltese public more aware of the availability and sustainability of such renewable energy technologies. It is of utmost importance to realise that solutions in energy production do exist; solutions which can guarantee a cleaner environment than the one we currently live in.

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