it should be pointed out that wind turbines are not “Harry Potter devices” that will just produce what their master wishes them to produce. Nor is there such a thing as a battery turbine farm. So in arriving at some estimate of potential there is need to consider a number of factors: land area well away from settlements and land area over which wind has average velocities above a certain minimum.

European practice suggests that social, environmental and other constraints would limit actual area for wind farms to four-to-five per cent of that available under the first two constraints. After that one has to consider directions of prevailing wind and the rotor size so as to decide on the minimum rotor spacing, necessary to avoid mutual interference. That recipe would provide a good basis for starting on wind energy development. I do not think that covering the countryside with rotors is going to endear wind energy to anyone, including potential investors.

By the way, though every man and his dog, including myself, thought the government was being stingy in offering three cents for electrical units put on the mains by photovoltaic generators, that does not seem to be the case, or rather that impression was created by the English language version of the budget speech as well as by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi’s delivery.

The Maltese text proposes a barter deal – sistema ta’ tpartit – but in the (unlikely) event that over a billing period, the householder generates more than he consumes from the mains, the surplus production will be paid at three cents per unit. In normal cases, the meter reader will just subtract what was sent to the grid from what was taken from the grid, both figures being shown on the new Enemalta meters. That constitutes barter or net metering. The first 4,700 units generated will then be paid at 6c2 per unit.

Department of Physics,

University of Malta,

Msida