The only area available for offshore wind farms in Malta is in the northeast at a depth of 100m to 200m while existing technologies for offshore wind farms only reach a depth of 44 metres.
According to the various maps included in the expression of interest for Offshore Wind farm Development in Malta, issued by the Malta Resources Authority last year, it is evident that the only area remaining for the offshore wind farms is in the northeast area of Malta at depths varying between 100m to 200m.
In an article that appeared on-line on 24 August 2006, a German company REpower Systems AG issued a press release stating that “a demonstrator wind farm has just been set up on a lattice-like jacket structure, piled to the seabed at a depth of 44 metres”.
The press release added, “Never before have wind turbines been set up in water this deep.”
British and Danish energy groups Centrica and DONG Energy set up another wind farm last year. These developed a 90 MW wind farm in the East Irish Sea approximately 7km south west of Walney Island, near Barrow-in-Furness. The 30 turbine wind farm was completed in June 2006 at a depth of 15m to 20m.
England and Scotland are working on a e41 million pilot project, co-funded by the EU, to install two demonstrator wind turbines adjacent to an oil field 25 km off the east coast of Scotland.
According to the website of the Beatrice Windfarm Demonstrator Project, the wind farm will be located “adjacent to the Beatrice oilfield some 25 km from shore and this ambitious pilot project aims to install two prototype five megawatt turbines in water depths of up to 45 metres”.
Local experts explained that so far, there are no existing technologies that can build an offshore windfarm at those depths.
Furthermore, it can be clearly seen on the maps in the EOI that the only areas where the windfarms can be built in Malta is at a depth of 100m to 200m.
Nine companies had submitted an expression of interest in the project: Consortium made up of Prokon Nord, Mammoet Van Dord, Van Dord Dredging and Marine, Sun Energy Ltd, Salv. Bezzina and Sons Ltd; R. S. Design Association on behalf of Mofer; Handel and Financing; Innovative Energy; AX Holdings and Ballast; Needham Offshore Energy; Evelop Netherlands; SLP Energy/ Malta Shipyards; Blue H. Technologies BV; WPD AG Bremen and FNI Consortium made up of Falzon Group, Nordex Energy and Impetus.
According to the EOI, the project will be a public-private partnership since the developers, who will be granted authorisation to carry out the project, will be expected to finance, build, and operate the wind farms, while the government will provide the marine site on a concessionary basis.
Enemalta Corporation will be the distribution network operator and will purchase the energy at agreed fixed tariffs and terms. The final capacity of the wind farm project is estimated to reach between 75 and 100 megawatts – around 10 per cent of the electricity generated in Malta.