Day: April 8, 2010

Gaafaru Wind Farm: the future of Male’s power?

The Gaafaru wind farm project to power the Male’ region will be operational by August 2013, the government has promised, although the cost has already soared to US$370 million from a predicted US$250 million.

The agreement between the State Electricity Company Limited (STELCO) and Falcon Energy to build and run a 75mW wind farm in Gaafaru, North Malé Atoll, should produce enough clean energy for Malé, Hulhulé and a number of resorts to “switch off their existing diesel power generators” according to the President’s Office.

The wind farm will be required to produce an uninterrupted minimum of 45mW. On windy days, “excess electricity…will be used to run a water desalination plant.” On calm days, there will be a gas turbine which can produce up to 50mW of back-up power.

GE Energy is the most likely candidate to supply the wind turbines, and will also be supplying a desalination plant and the 50 mW back-up generator powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The project’s local lead, Omar Manik, told Minivan News the Gaafaru wind farm is expected to completely replace the electricity currently produced and provided by STELCO, and should save the government about US$50 million a year.

Wind speed concerns

According to an American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) 2005 report, the minimum average wind speed needed to run a utility-scale wind power plants is 6 metres per second (21.6 km/h).

The AWEA report states that because “power available in the wind is proportional to the cube of its speed… doubling the wind speed increases the available power by a factor of eight.”

For example, a turbine operating at a site with an average of 20 km/h should produce 33 percent more electricity than a site operating at 19 km/h, because the cube of 20 is larger than the cube of 19.

This means that a difference of just 1 km/h in wind speed could significantly bring down productivity in the wind farm.

According to figures published in a 2003 report by the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), North Malé Atoll has an annual average wind speed of 4.9 m/s (17.7 km/h), with the maximum average wind speed recorded of 8 m/s (28.8 km/h).

The Gaafaru wind farm is meanwhile expected to run on a minimum wind speed of 5.7 m/s.

Manik explained that wind farm engineers relied on [a minimum wind speed of] 15 m/s for a utility farm ten years ago, but due to efficiency gains “today it’s 3.5 m/s.”

Most of the data used for the Gaafaru project was collected by Manik, with help from the Department of Meteorology, at both 40 and 80 meters above ground.

Manik noted that the important thing when gathering wind speed data is “how high it is and how much wind there is. The higher you go, the better it is.”

The masts for the wind turbines at Gaafaru will be 80 metres high, with the propellers reaching a diameter of 50 metres. Manik explained “at 80 metres there will be very good wind.”

The wind farm

Manik said a preliminary feasibility study on wind speeds has been conducted and the project is moving forward as planned.

The project is being funded and run by UK-based Falcon Energy Group, but is represents a consortium of four companies; two from the UK, including Falcon Energy, one from Saudi Arabia and one from Holland. Currently, they are surveying wind power and negotiating prices for freight, turbines and gas supply.

The wind farm will use STELCO’s power grid, but will replace its powerplant in Male’.

“The powerhouse in Malé is limited, they have land problems, fuel price problems. We need renewable energy,” Manik explained.

The wind farm should produce from 60-70mW of energy, “which is still higher than what is required by the government,” Manik said. “STELCO will still be the provider. We are selling to them and they are providing.”

The wind farm is expected to run at 85 percent productivity, and any excess energy will be automatically sent to run the desalination plant.

Wind turbines

The project’s team is currently analysing how many turbines will be needed to produce the required 45mW of electricity. Manik noted that two 25mW turbines will be more costly than one 50mW turbine.

He said they are looking at turbines that use no oil at all, because “the most important thing for us is not the energy. It’s the coral reef,” and the turbines must therefore be 100 percent environmentally friendly.

They are also studying the pH and moisture levels in the water, Manik said, to prevent corrosion in the turbines. Anti-corrosive zinc tablets will be placed in the mast and the turbines to keep them from rusting.

The turbines will be shipped from Lisbon, Portugal, but it is proving difficult and expensive to ship them to Malé.

Back-up generator and desalination plant

The back-up generator and water desalination plant will be located in Hulhumalé and will be provided by GE. The back-up generator, a gas-powered turbine, will have a production capability of 50mW and should be installed in about eight months.

Energy produced by the back-up is expected to replace STELCO’s electricity by late next year. “The back-up generator will be the first thing to be installed,” Manik said, adding that the most important thing was relieving STELCO from having to purchase more generators next year.

He said they are currently negotiating the gas contract for the back-up with one company in Sri Lanka and one in India. First, they need to know how many gas tanks will be needed and what sizes they will need to be. Building the gas tanks, Manik said, will take about a year.

Because excess wind energy “cannot be bottled or stored,” it must be used. If it is not used, Manik explained, it will lower productivity, so any extra energy will go into powering the desalination plant.

The back-up will most likely run on liquefied natural gas (LNG) since it is the “the best option to get where we want to be: carbon neutral,” Manik said, but noted that petroleum gas (regular cooking gas) has a larger heating capacity and does not pollute the air much more than LNG.

Manik said the water produced in the desalination plant would most likely be sold to Hulhumalé, although the government has previously said it would use it for bottled water.

STELCO and power grids

The clean energy produced by the wind farm will be distributed through STELCO’s existing power grids in Malé, and distributed through new submarine cables. Manik noted the 60 km of submarine cables are very expensive to buy and lay out, and will have to be replaced in about 50 years.

He said the biggest issue with the grids is ensuring the current grids in Malé can handle the amount of energy that will be produced by the wind farm.

“If there are 75mW of power coming into this grid, this grid should handle that,” Manik said. He added that they still need to figure out whether the electricity will be coming in through STELCO’s main power generator or into the four individual grids set out in Malé.

Economics and timelines

Falcon Energy group is investing most of the US$370 million needed to fund this project. Manik noted a lot of that money will be loaned by international banks to Falcon Energy.

“International banks are very keen to invest in the Maldives,” he said, “but they need eighteen months of wind surveys. They are becoming partners, they don’t want to lose their money.”

Manik says although both Falcon Energy and the banks know there is “good wind,” they will only invest once they can see wind data collected over eighteen months, which would ensure the data is varied and accurate.

He said while the remaining wind surveys and the installation of the back-up generator are being conducted, once they have six months of data “to give us full confidence, then we will start planting the foundations for the wind turbines.”

“By the time the eighteen months are up, the turbines should be completed,” he added.

Manik said that while “the government doesn’t come up with any money, when you go into a big project like this, even the receiver has to do something, some work.”

The work he is referring to is the possibility that the government might have to “rearrange” how the clean energy will be brought into the city.

“They may have to lay some cables. Maybe. Minimum investment from the government.”

He said it would help if the project could “tap into” some of the funds recently donated to the country, both in the Donor Conference and the Climate Change Trust Fund, but said that is something they are not really thinking about.

“We have to use what is available now. And we also need to show that we are capable people.”

Manik said the cost of the project has risen from the original figure of US$250 million to US$370 million “because there is no infrastructure here, and it has to be built by us.”

The MoU states that Falcon Energy must provide an uninterrupted power supply to STELCO for twenty years “starting from a given date.”

“It has to always be transparent,” Manik said, “you are working with the government, it has to be clear.”

The wind turbines should be working by June 2013 and the back-up generator should be operational by October 2011.

Correction: the wind mast to carry out further tests is being sent from Portugal, not the turbines.

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DRP ‘gate shaking’ case sent to Prosecutor General

Police have sent a case concerning the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP)-led protest outside MNDF headquarters in January to the Prosecutor General’s office, following investigation.

Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam said the case involved “some DRP members.” DRP Vice Presidents Umar Naseer and Ali Waheed have previously been summoned by police for questioning over the issue.

”It’s unauthorized to gather near the Maldives National Defense Force headquarters,” Shiyam said. “[The protesters] split police forces and shook the main gatesof MNDF,” he explained.

He said the case sent to the PG included “everyone in connection with the case.”

The PG’s office confirmed the case had been received but PG Ahmed Muiz would not give further details to Minivan News.

DRP leader and MP Ahmed Thasmeen Ali said the purpose of trying to prosecute DRP protesters was that they “had been trying to make the government responsible and remind them of their pledges”, and that the prosecution was an attempt “to escape from the unfulfilled pledges made to the people.”

Thasmeen noted that it was also unauthorized to gather and protest near the parliament.

”I have seen people with loudspeakers and microphones near the parliament,” Thasmeen said, ”Why isn’t the government investigating and prosecuting them?”

He said he was surprised that the senior officials of the government had told the people the government was a democracy, but were now trying to arrest protesters.

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Ahmed Shifaz said that he would describe the riot as an act of ”terrorism”

Shifaz said trying to enter a country’s defense force base was “a very serious case”, and that the people involved in it should be prosecuted.

”MNDF have the authority to use weapons when that happens,” he said. ”They did not do it.”

He said whether or not someone was an MP, nobody was above the law.

”A penalty should be given for the people who were involved in the incident,” he said.

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”Hithaadhu will run out of water in a day,” warns island councilor

Councilor of Hithaadhoo in Baa Atoll Amir Abdul Latheef has claimed the island will run out of water over the weekend if the government does not provide it for them urgently.

Amir said the island office had reports that some people on the island had begun using well water for drinking and cooking, a practice banned by the Health Ministry twelve years ago due to the impurity of the ground water in the island.

”All the water tanks are now almost empty,” Amir said. ”We informed [the government] office one week ago. They said they would deliver water to us, but there has been no response after that.”

He said the islanders were worried over the issue and wondering what to do if the government did not provide aid for them.

He said there was a total population of 1222 people on the island of Hithaadhoo.

Councilor of Kihaadhoo in Baa Atoll Abdulla Naseem said some people on the island had also started using well water for cooking as there was not enough water on the island.

Naseem said the ground water of the island was impure due to sewerage.

”Fifty per-cent of the ground water is polluted while water from some areas is totally impure,” he said.

He said the island would run out of water in two to three months.

”We have already informed [the government] that we might run out of water,” he said. ”Last time the government provided 30,000 litres of water.”

He said 425 people lived on the Island of Kihaadhoo.

State minister for health Abdul Baary Abdulla said there was a long list of islands where the ministry had banned the use of water to drink and cook.

Baary said there were many diseases that could potentially result from the use of contaminated water, including diarrhoea, stomach ailments and skin diseases.

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Vice President launches teaching aid donation programme

Vice President Dr Mohamed Waheed attended the pre-inaugural ceremony of the 2010 Science Exhibition at Aminiya School.

Dr Waheed launched a teaching aid donation programme at the school which has been initiated by Maldives National Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Holiday Inn Malé.

Dr Waheed said he was encouraged that the private sector took initiative to support education in the Maldives and hoped the science fair would encourage students to learn more about science.

He added that teachers should encourage inquiry-based learning in all subjects.

The 2010 Science Exhibition will be held later this year in June.

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High fibre: the cable guys connecting the Maldives

The Maldives’ two main internet service providers (ISPs) have dramatically upgraded their speed and network capacity, potentially heralding the beginning of a connectivity ‘arms race’ – at least in the country’s capital.

The Maldives’ major telecommunications player, Dhiraagu, recently introduced home and business incarnations of a 10 Mbps (megabits per second) broadband ADSL package, an offering it claims “is the first time in the Maldives home users can experience speeds up to 10 Mbps.”

In comparison, the average broadband speed in the UK is 3.6 Mbps, according to the country’s communications watchdog Ofcom.

Dhiraagu also upgraded the accounts of its existing ADSL customers, doubling their download speeds and in many cases tripling download allowances without additional charges. The feedback from customers, says Dhiraagu’s Marketing & Communications Manager Mohamed Mirshan Hassan, has been “very encouraging.”

“We periodically review the service based on our analysis of customer demands,” he noted.

The move, surprisingly generous by the standards of any ISP, could be a reaction to the decision by relative newcomer Focus Infocom (a private company partnered with companies such as Wataniya and Singtel) to unroll ‘fibre to the home’ (FTTH) technology.

Until now the company has delivered internet services through cable suppliers Bnet and Medianet under the Raajje Online (ROL) brand, over coaxial cable.

“We have to pay the providers and we don’t get refunded for downtime,” explains Jinah Ibraheem, ROL’s head of sales. “The network can be quite congested and we receive the complaints.”

FTTH, essentially a fibre-optic cable laid to the customer’s very door, allows ROL offer dedicated internet services to customers at speeds up to 10Mbps, “with the potential to offer speed on demand if people need faster speeds like 20Mbps or even 50Mbps connections.”

Moreover the speed is symmetrical, making uploading as fast as downloading – a boon for people like photography hobbyists who need to upload pictures or movies to websites like Flickr or YouTube, or otherwise work online.

However unlike ADSL, which is older and more widespread, the price of entry for FTTH is high – ROL is currently charging a connection fee of Rf7500 (US$550), putting it out of reach for all but businesses and upmarket individuals, and existing cable customers who the company states on their website can upgrade without cost.

Jiinah acknowledges that ROL is catering to “a higher end of the market” with its FTTH offering, but notes that “with a dedicated 10Mbps cable you’re not sharing it with anyone else. With unlimited access you’re sharing from a single pool, but now people are moving back to limited packages because they want speed.”

In developed countries such as the UK, dedicated cables are extremely expensive because of the distances involved and are most commonly used only by businesses, which split the bandwidth across offices. FTTH is perhaps a rare advantage of Male’s congestion and relatively short distances.

If anything, FTTH is the triumph of a geographical information system that has been under development for 9-10 years, Jinah says, that is able to make sense of the jumble of cables buried under Male’: “There’s few records available and 3-4 companies putting cables into the ground – STELCO, the two cable providers, and Dhiraagu.”

While internet surfers in Male’ will be rejoicing at the prospect of further competition between the two ISPs, the outlook for connectivity in the islands is not so positive. Networking an island chain is an expensive proposition, with Dhiraagu the clear leader through its rollout of WiMAX – a technology that wirelessly connects the customer and the provider across the ‘last mile’, much like a high-powered WiFi connection, but suffers over long distances.

“For further rollout serivces we are not using ASDL technology,” explains Mirshan. “We are connecting 25 islands or so using WiMAX, which I would say is really a competing technology with 3G (the mobile data network).”

Jinah claims the speed of WiMAX “can be very slow, at least compared with broadband.”

ROL is only present on a limited number of islands, riding on the back of cable TV connections: “Dhiraagu been in this market for 21 years and we’ve only been here for seven,” he defends.

“It’s not going to be easy for us to start a business on the islands,” he admits, “but I’m happy to commit bandwidth [to the islands] for resellers to sell on to say 30-60 customers.”

Beyond commercial battling, both ISPs are attempting to build their brands and expand the market for internet services, particularly among the young. Dhiraagu leverages its massive mobile marketing machine and sponsorship of large sporting events, while ROL appears to be relying more on word-of-mouth among its many high-end users.

Jinah explains he is attempting to start an IT association in the country, with the eventual goal of transforming IT “into a third industry, after tourism and fishing.”

“Why not IT?” he asked. “We have many good quality IT graduates, and [institutions such as] the National Centre for Technology not really being used by the government.”

ROL is also considering how it can assist the country’s fledgling open source software community, as well as teach school children how to use the internet. But the legislation has a way to catch up.

‘I’ve spoken to the Chamber of Commerce about developing the industry,” Jinah says. “But there’s currently no copyright law and no cyber law, so for instance there’s no way to charge someone if they were to hack into the government.”

However Minister for Civil Aviation and Communication Mahmoud Razee is positive the government can lead an internet revolution.

“Internet linkages are vital because of the way we a spread geographically,” he explains. “We can use it to bring services closer to people, which is one of the reasons why we’re looking at e-government initiatives. People will be able to do things like apply for drivers licenses online, or request a birth or death certificate. At the same time we’re trying to reduce the amount of paper used by the government. However we have to work to get the internet connected to all islands.”

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New Ambassador of Sudan to the Maldives

New Sudanese Ambassador to the Maldives, Khidir Haroun Ahmed, presented his credentials to President Mohamed Nasheed yesterday.

President Nasheed and Ambassador Ahmed discussed possible areas of cooperation between the two countries, and focused on how the Maldives and Sudan could strengthen cooperation to combat climate change.

Ambassador Ahmed is also serving as ambassador to Sri Lanka and was former ambassador to the United States.

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EU’s Commissioner for Climate Action departs Maldives

Before her departure yesterday, European Union’s first Commissioner for Climate Action, Connie Hedegaard, said doubters of climate change should come to the Maldives to see the true effects of climate change.

“It is very different to come to a place like here to see with your own eyes what climate change is all about,” she said.

She said it was necessary to find ways to improve sustainable development, and said President Mohamed Nasheed is “one of the leading voices” in the efforts to raise awareness on climate change.

President Nasheed said their visit to Sh. Komandoo was “very fruitful” and him and Hedegaard discussed issues of climate change on vulnerable countries like the Maldives.

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National debt easing, says Dr Shaheed

Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Ahmed Shaheed has told Miadhu that the Maldives’ national debt stood at 110% of GDP at the end of 2008 according to International Monetary Fund (IMF) reports.

Dr Shaheed said he is “not ashamed” to tell the truth about the country’s financial situation, because international financial institutions are monitoring the country’s external debts.

He said the country’s debt was due to the previous government’s extravagance in buying presidential yachts and offices. He added that this debt was the reason for the government reducing civil service salaries as they had no alternative.

Dr Shaheed said certain leaders of political parties are trying to spin the facts, contradicting the IMF’s reports.

Dr Shaheed said working with the international community and multilateral financial institutions is easing the country’s debt. The USA has readmitted the Maldives into the General System of Preferences, its duty-free quota system as well as signing an agreement with the US’s Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) which encourages companies to invest in the Maldives.

The Maldives also hopes to be admitted into the US’s development assistance project, Millennium Challenge Account, as well as the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.

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New rent regulation bill proposed in Parliament

A new bill has to regulate rent in Malé been proposed in Parliament by Independent MP Mohamed Nasheed, reports Miadhu.

Nasheed said the bill aims not to control rent, but to set certain standards for the real estate business.

Nasheed noted that in a time when human rights have become key in policy-making, this bill would protect the rights of both owners and tenants. The bill would also form a tribunal to arbitrate rent cases.

Most of the MPs supported the bill, which could help with overcrowding in Malé. But it was proposed that the bill also include rented offices and businesses, so it will not reduce the cost of goods and services.

Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) leader Ahmed Thasmeen Ali said the bill could potentially harm the real estate industry.

He said the government should not intervene, because fewer people would enter the market and fewer would construct new homes.

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Ahmed Hamza also said introducing the bill at this moment could hinder construction business, adding that the bill would present challenges to the free-market.

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