NEWS | Wednesday, 14 May 2008

Government analysing other areas for wind farms – Tonio Fenech

David Darmanin
Reacting to a 90-minute speech on “Healthy Enterprise and a Dynamic Economy”, delivered by Minister for Finance Tonio Fenech at a business breakfast Friday, members of the business community brought up the issue of alternative energy, outlining that government’s propositions to install an offshore wind-farm may after all result unpractical.
In August 2006, the government had issued a call for international interest for the development of deepwater wind farms in Maltese waters, despite the fact that this type of technology was still at an experimental stage.
A spokesperson for the Prime Minister at the time had informed sister paper MaltaToday that the government had excluded less expensive land-based and near-shore wind farms, due to their visual impact.
Friday’s event was meant to be one out of four consultation meetings with representatives of constituted bodies and the business community prior to this year’s national budget. The fourth and last meeting is set to exclusively focus on renewable energy. As Fenech ended his presentation and invited the floor to provide reactions, entrepreneur Angelo Xuereb said: “We have been discussing alternative energy for the past 12 years now. Why have we not taken action yet? We don’t need to go for a fully-fledged wind farm right from the start. Why don’t we start by installing three wind turbines in Ħal Far?”
Pointing out flaws in the government’s initial proposition to install offshore wind farms, the recently appointed Chamber of Commerce chairman Tancred Tabone said: “We need to be honest and see if wind energy is possible or not. Land is not good because of environmental concerns while an offshore wind-farm is out of the question because the sea is too deep. Other than that, we have the wrong type of wind, and there are reports to prove this. One must seriously consider making these reports public.”
In his reply, Fenech stated: “We must be realistic when it comes to renewable energy. If we had the option I would be all for reaching a level where even 50 per cent of our energy derives from alternative sources, but this is not easy at all. I have not seen reports on wind energy yet, but I am aware of what you have mentioned with the difficulty in setting up wind farms where, yes, we have the wrong type of wind, but I know that they are now analysing other areas. Five to 10 per cent of our energy is meant to be generated from a wind farm and this initiative is currently being studied.”