|
EXPERIMENTAL WIND PARK INAUGURATED
1,000-plus tons of CO2
will no longer be released into the atmosphere
• With a total generating
capacity of 1.65 Megawatts, the wind park located on
the Isle of Youth can meet 10% of electricity demand
for that special municipality
THE
start-up of the Los Canarreos Experimental Eolian
Park, located 37 km east of the capital of the
special municipality of the Isle of Youth in
southern Cuba, will make it possible, via the use of
wind energy, to generate electricity and stop the
release of 1,462 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2)
into the atmosphere.
Carlos Lage and Yadira García, members of the
Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba,
attended the February 24 inauguration of the park,
which was built at a cost of $3.4 million and uses
technology supplied by the French corporation
Vergnet, according to
Juventud Rebelde
newspaper.
IN
CASE OF HURRICANES, IT CAN BE DISMANTLED IN THREE
HOURS
A
special feature of this installation, which is
totally automated, is that its six windmill
generators automatically lower to the ground via
remote control from the command post, something
vital in a region that has received the impact of
four hurricanes and an intense tropical storm, Wilma
since 2001. According to technician Ignacio Luis
Moya Alvarez, the park can be dismantled and secured
within three hours.
Moya,
who helped mount the park, explained that each
generator has a 275-kilowatt potential, making the
park’s total generating capacity 1.65 Megawatts
(MW), and therefore enabling it to meet 10% of that
municipality’s demand for electric power.
Marc
Vergnet, president of the company that supplied the
technology, says he was very satisfied with the
installation of the equipment, which is designed for
20 years of use.
“Cubans learn fast. They began working in August
(2006) and by January, they already had the first
machine in sync with the local electric power
system,” he noted.
However, it was not an easy task. Electrical
technician Manuel Hidalgo, his face burned by the
sun and dark rings under his eyes, looked at the
55-meter towers and recalled how they would leave
the municipal capital of Nueva Gerona at dawn and
return late in the evening.
“As
soon as we got here, we got to work, first on the
marabú (thorny weeds) and the hill, and then
preparing the foundations for the bases of each
tower,” he says.
The
Isle of Youth is located in the path of trade winds
that hit its eastern side almost year-round, with
wind speeds of four to six meters per second, on
average, according to measures taken 10 meters in
the air, noted Ramón Rivero Magaña, a climatology
expert at the Meteorological Center of the Ministry
of Science, Technology and the Environment.
VIA
THIS METHOD, THE COUNTRY COULD PRODUCE 5,000 TO
14,000 MW
Eduardo Santé Fernández, coordinator of Cuba’s
Eolian Energy Project, said that according to a
prospect wind study, some 5,000 to 14,000 MW of
energy could be produced via this method.
It
was announced that work may be completed this year
on the Gibara Wind Park in the northern region of
the eastern province of Holguín, where six
Spanish-made 850-kw windmills are to be installed,
to produce a total of 5.1 MW. There are also plans
to install a further six Chinese-made windmills.
|
