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Why wind farms are a bad idea

16th August 2013

By: Terry Mackenzie-hoy

  

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Until now, I have confined my comments on wind farms to the broader picture: that they are a bad idea, since the wind does not blow all the time, they kill birds, they make a noise, they are financed by Eskom having to pay over the top for power from them, that carbon credits are lies, and so on.

I never believed that anybody, given the disaster that they have been in Europe and in the US, would be so naive as to actually build one in South Africa. We have here, in the Cape, our very own Eskom Klipheuwel wind farm. Unless I deceive myself, even on very windy days, at least two of the turbines are not turning. So, if Eskom is not doing it right, who will?

But they are going ahead. We are informed: “The Cookhouse wind farm, developed under the first round of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme, the South African government’s flagship uitility-scale renewable energy programme, is located between Cookhouse and Bedford, in the Eastern Cape. Construction on the first phase [started] in early February this year, and the wind farm, consisting of 66 Suzlon 2.1 MW turbines with an installed capacity of 138.6 MW, is expected to be synchronised with the Eskom grid by the second quarter of 2014.

“The project is being developed by African Clean Energy Developments and is owned by a consortium of African infrastructure investors, including Apollo and African Infrastructure Investment Fund 2, both advised by African Infrastructure Investment Managers (a joint venture between Old Mutual Investment Group South Africa, or Omigsa, and Macquarie Group of Australia); the Infrastructure, Developmental and Environmental Assets Managed Fund, managed by Omigsa; Afpoc and the local communities of Cookhouse, Bedford, Somerset East and Adelaide through their ownership in the Cookhouse Wind Farm Community Trust.

“The project is financed by Standard Bank, Nedbank and Futuregrowth Asset Management. The main contractor is Suzlon Wind Energy South Africa, a subsidiary of the Suzlon group, the fifth-largest turbine supplier in the world.” (From EnergyBlog http://www.energy.org.za.)

Well, that’s jolly nice. Apart from the fact that the road to Cookhouse is being pulverised to bits by the sudden onset of heavy traffic transporting bits of wind turbine, what could possibly go wrong?

To begin with, the wind in Cookhouse can hardly be regarded in the same light as a steady trade wind. At the time of writing and on the previous day, for example, it was an average of 2 km/h. I regularly go past Cookhouse and, well, high winds do not actually form part of my memory. But! Moving on! The Cookhouse generation will tie into Eskom’s Poseidon substation, which has a transfer capacity of about 500 MW and is interconnected at 760 kV, 400 kV, 220 kV and 132 kV.

What this means is that connecting the power cables of the Cookhouse wind farm to the Poseidon substation is like connecting your domestic water supply to the bottom of the Hoover dam – the power cables are going to have to be really well rated if they are not to blow apart when a fault occurs.

Secondly, while Cookhouse is not the end of the world, it is not exactly a metropolis. With 66 turbines, there are about 66 × 100 m of copper cable to guard against theft, besides a whole lot of other stuff up for grabs. Perhaps, it can be guarded against vandalism. But I would not bet on it. And, if it is stolen, it is very expensive to replace.

The big question for me is: Why put up 66 turbines at a time? Why not put up, say, six, and see what happens? There is an enormous amount of money riding on this whole thing, so why roll the dice on the lot?

It would be fine if we could say, hey, look how successful it has all been in Europe? But it hasn’t been! Many wind farm operators have gone broke as subsidies collapse and projected capacities are not met. Are all the investors just fooling themselves or are being fooled by the turbine suppliers? I will take a bet with you: In five years’ time, the Cookhouse wind farm will be broke. Like many in Europe . . . maybe standing. But broke.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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