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CI Times Weekly | Current Issue 439|23 March 2012

Wind power a big factor in countdown to 2020
Australian consultants have recommended that over half of Rarotonga’s future energy needs be generated by wind power.
Public reaction can be expected over the size of the generators, the number required, the location and the visual impact as they will need to be set in clear space at about 30 metres high.
On Thursday Te Aponga Uira CEO Apii Timoti announced the receipt of three reports prepared by Australian based consultants KEMA Australia Pty Ltd recommending possible renewable energy (RE) options for the island of Rarotonga.
Those reports are;
(1) an RE economic viability study which recommends a preferred scenario,
(2) a storage feasibility report, and
(3) a waste to energy study.
Of interest is the first report above on the economic viability study.
The consultants considered six options for RE and these were costed out to determine which delivered the best cost/effectiveness ratio. The preferred option returned twice the benefit for every dollar spent and resulted in the lowest cost overall ($149 million) for implementation by the target date for 100% RE, 2020.
The options considered by the consultants all included a mix of RE mechanisms including solar, wind, bio-fuel, small hydro, wave energy.
The preferred option is a mix of primarily wind power and solar power.
The consultants recommend as follows;
Wind 53%
Solar 28%
Other 10%
Bio-diesel 00%
Storage 11%
To meet the target of 50% RE by 2015, a large scale on shore wind project will be needed and the consultants admit this will be challenging.
What is interesting about the recommendation for a large scale wind project is that none of the research mentioned was over more than a two year period (see page 9 of document “Final Energy Storage Feasibility Study”).
There is no mention what size the wind generator propellers need to be to function on an average wind speed of around 7 metres per second. There is no mention how many wind generators will be needed to produce 53% of our requirements and where these will be sited-on whose property?
Some years ago, local boffin, Tom Wichman conducted a 5 year study of wind speeds at a site in Matavera. Tom estimated that the required wind speed to be effective needed to be around 8 metres per second of consistent wind. He reported instances where a constant wind of 5 metres per second was achievable but these instances were random. He said wind was present in a corridor inland from the Kii kii coast but would need a generator with a smaller propeller meaning more would be needed to generate the sort of power we needed. Placing a large number of these along the foothills would not be scenic from a tourism point of view. We do not want tourists to arrive and see large numbers of 30 metre high propellers on our hills.
Te Aponga Uira is expected to place the documents on their website in the near future. -Charles Pitt

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