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US$40M wind farm project gets green light – Dindyal
By Gary Eleazar
Guyana Wind Farm Inc, has been given the go ahead to pursue a 25MW wind farm at Hope Beach. This wind farm will sell its electricity to Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL).
An Example of a Wind Farm
This is according to Chief Executive Officer of the Power Company, Bharat Dindyal, who this past week held a public consultation at the Duke Lodge and said that all of the local necessary approvals to pursue the project have been approved.
Dindyal said, too, that the power company has been given the green light to engage the investor.
According to Dindyal it is now up to the investor to secure financing for the US$40M project.
A feasibility study has been completed and the environmental hurdles have all been crossed for the US$40M project, according to the local businessman/investor, Lloyd Singh.
Government and the principals of the project have been meeting in recent months with the aim of signing a power purchase agreement that will see the state-owned GPL purchasing electricity at a cheaper rate.
Dindyal, when he made the disclosure, said that GPL is expecting the project to come on stream before hydro power.
He noted that shortly GPL will be hosting a team of technical experts with regards the impact of the wind farm on the operation of GPL.
He noted that while they would have in the past undertaken such studies with the advent of technology there is a need to reassess.
“With a wind farm you are buying energy and not capacity. You will have to have spinning reserves,” according to Dindyal.
He did point out that there is current technology available to improve system stability such as storage systems.
Singh, who is also the main principal in International Pharmaceutical Agency Group and the major shareholder of Guyana Wind Farms Inc., is partnering with Avic International, a significant player in China’s wind farm development and the first company to install Chinese turbines in the United States.
In 2008, Avic International supplied 10 sets of one megawatt wind turbines for Lubbock, Texas and is a major supplier for the USA. Its current project includes the development of a 90-megawatt wind farm, also in Texas.
Singh, in a recent interview, with this publication had disclosed that they will be teaming up with Goldwind Science and Technology Co. Ltd., China’s largest wind turbine manufacturer, headquartered in Urumqi, Xinjiang, China, to develop the wind farm. It is one of the largest China-based wind turbine manufacturers by the 2011 market share and the third largest in the world, delivering an installed capacity of 3,584 megawatts in 2011.
Singh is looking for the power facility to be built under a ‘Build, Own, Operate, Transfer’ (BOOT) arrangement, where it could end up in the hands of Guyana after a specific number of years.
“We are even looking to Lethem, Region Nine area, for a possible similar project and awaiting government’s approval to conduct a feasibility study. The Essequibo Coast is also not being ruled out.”
It is not the first time that eyes have been cast on Hope Beach for a wind farm. In 2009, Delta Caribbean N.V., a Curacao-based company, had been interested in this project. It had done feasibility studies for a 13.5 megawatt wind farm at an estimated cost of US$26M.
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