From: tgray@igc.apc.org (Tom Gray)
Newsgroups: sci.environment
Subject: --Curacao Windfarm Sparks Debate
Date: 14 Dec 92 18:09:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1466601999:000:5809
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!tgray    Dec 14 10:09:00 1992


/* Written  9:53 am  Dec 14, 1992 by tgray@igc.apc.org in igc:en.energy */
CARIBBEAN WINDFARM
STIRS SOME DEBATE
 
The first wind power plant planned for a Caribbean island is facing
opposition on presumed environmental grounds, but the local utility
still plans to install the project early next year.
 
Environmentalists are objecting to a proposed 3-MW facility on the
northern side of Curacao (see Wind Energy Weekly #486, February 24,
1992, p. 2), an island off the coast of Venezuela in the Leeward
Antilles.  According to Margo Guda of the Fundashon Antiyano Pa
Energia, objectors are raising many of the same arguments once
raised in the Netherlands, principally aesthetic impacts and noise.
 
Amigo de la Tera, the Friends of the Earth affiliate on Curacao,
charges that the 12 wind turbines will mar the dramatic landscape
on the island's windswept northeastern coastline.  The group
suggests declaring the site a national scenic park and moving the
wind turbines elsewhere. 
 
The proposed windfarm will join an existing turbine at Boca San
Pedro on a thin coastal strip facing the easterly trade winds.  The
site is about one kilometer from Tera Cora, a residential
neighborhood which sits on a bluff above the shoreline.  Only a
portion of the rotor on the existing turbine is visible from homes
in the neighborhood.
 
Earlier fears of noise from the proposed facility have abated since
a poll of residents found little or no noise reached the
neighborhood from the existing machine.  Nevertheless, criticism of
the project has forced government officials to examine the
project's noise and aesthetic impact.
 
The area around the existing turbine is used frequently by tourists
in off-road vehicles, and as an occasional trash dump by others. 
Ironically, there are nearly 4,000 water-pumping windmills on the
island, says Guda, one-half of which are still in use.  The
existing turbine, a NEWECS 25, has been operating successfully
since its 1985 installation.  Developed by Stork and FDO, two Dutch
aerospace companies, the two-blade, 26.5-meter turbine was a
forerunner of a 1-MW turbine installed at Medemblik in the
Netherlands.
 
Kodela, Curacao's water and electricity utility, operates the
existing machine, and is developing the new project with 12 NedWind
250-kW turbines.  The 25-meter design is currently used in the
Netherlands, including prominent projects on breakwaters at
Enkuizen and Lauwersoog.
 
The site in Curacao has an average annual wind speed of 8 m/s (18
mph).  However, the average speed is less indicative of the energy
in the wind than elsewhere because the island lies in the trade
wind belt.  Trade winds are nearly constant, but seldom reach gale
force.  Guda estimates that winds at the site will rarely exceed 12
m/s (27 mph).  Nevertheless, the power density for the site, the
best measured to date on Curacao, is a powerful 700 watts/m2, Guda
estimates.
 
Most wind turbines are designed to perform optimally in winds
stronger than those typically found in the trade winds.  For
example, nearly all utility-scale wind turbines, with the exception
of U.S. Windpower's 56-100, reach their rated capacity only in
winds from 13-16 m/s (30-35 mph).  Thus most wind turbines, says
Guda, will rarely if ever reach their rated capacity when operating
in Caribbean trade winds. 
 
The existing NEWECS 25, for example, reaches its 300 kW of rated
capacity at 14 m/s (31 mph), a wind speed above that typically
encountered at the site.  During much of the year, when the wind
hits the island at a steady 10 m/s (22 mph), the turbine will only
generate 50-60 kW.  Guda believes that the performance can be
improved dramatically by tuning the rotor and its pitch control
system for use with a smaller generator. 
 
Curacao, which lies 40 miles (65 kilometers) north of the
Venezuelan coast, is an autonomous former Dutch colony.  The
island's population of 170,000 receives substantial financial
support from the Dutch government, which along with the European
Community is expected to pay 50% of the wind project costs. 
 
Kodela had initially expressed interest in using U.S. Windpower's
56-100 turbine at the Boca San Pedro site.  However, the Dutch
government quickly offered to finance the project with both its own
funds and those of the EC if Kodela would use more costly Dutch
turbines.  Though the turbines are currently under construction,
the EC has balked at contributing its share at the last minute. 
Kodela expects the snag will be resolved soon so shipment of the
turbines can begin.
 
According to sources at Kodela, the towers for the project are
being built in the U.S.  However, no further details are available.
 
If completed, the Curacao project will be the largest south of the
U.S. border.
 
===============================

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*******************************************************************
Tom Gray                                 EcoNet/PeaceNet: tgray@igc
Internet/Bitnet: tgray@igc.apc.org            UUCP: uunet!cdp!tgray