Local newspaper Haveeru has published an interview with the purported managing director of the Falcon Energy Consortium, Steven David Jones, who told the paper the group would take legal action against the government’s termination of a US$370 million (Rf5.7 billion) memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop a wind farm at Gaafaru, in North Male’ Atoll.
According to an email interview between Haveeru News and Jones’ Maldivian business partner, Falcon Energy claimed that it was not informed of the termination and had meanwhile invested nearly US$1 million (Rf15 million) in meteorological masts and initial readings.
The government has disputed the existence of a legally-binding contract since media reports of the termination were published in August. Maldives’ State Electric Company (STELCO)’s Managing Director Dr Mohamed Zaid had previously told Minivan News that no private partnership agreement had been signed with General Electric (GE) and Falcon Energy.
In 2010 STELCO signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on behalf of the government with Falcon Energy and GE. But according to Jones, STELCO then agreed to amend its supposed agreement with Falcon to reflect the extra cost of laying an underwater cable, a feature not previously included in the MoU.
After concerns were raised by the public over Falcon’s legitimacy, the MoU was terminated and the Gaafaru project cancelled.
Minivan News was told that reasons for the termination included a lack of consensus between the parties involved, and whether they had the requisite experience: “Falcon didn’t work out,” said one informed source, while “a lot of things were not carried out according to the memorandum of understanding,” said another. Local newspaper Haveeru meanwhile reported that there were concerns about pricing and profitability of the enterprise.
STELCO proceeded with an open tender for another project which led to the current deal with Chinese company XEMC.
Jones, however, told Haveeru that it was a “big shock” when the Maldivian government signed the deal with XEMC this August.
Minivan News could not obtain contact information for Jones at time of press, and was also unable to find any mention of an individual by that name in connection with a Falcon Energy group.
Haveeru’s Editor Moosa Latheef said the paper had solicited the interview, but did not have a phone number and was not willing to provide Jones’ email address.
Falcon Energy itself holds a scattered track record. The Group was originally presented as a consortium of four companies from the UK, Holland and Saudi Arabia. In media reports on the deal, the President’s Office said it understood that Falcon’s credentials included commissioned “onshore and offshore wind farms totaling 1,500 MW over the past 10 years, in the UK, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Canada.”
International media and the renewable energy trade press widely reported that the Falcon Energy involved in the Gaafaru project was the Singapore-listed Falcon Energy Group, a major offshore oil and gas player. However that Falcon Energy bluntly denied any knowledge of the project when contacted by Minivan News following the collapse of the deal.
Falcon Energy earlier claimed that funding for the project would be provided by international bank loans. Yet at the time of signing the MoU, Falcon had still to raise the required investment with international banks. Research and observations from readers led Minivan News to find that the consortium had only a minimal web presence, which appear to no longer exist.
Furthermore, Falcon’s assessment of wind power in Gaafaru did not correspond with existing scientific studies on the matter.
In an article published in April 2010, Minivan News reported that figures published in a 2003 report by the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) indicated that North Malé Atoll’s annual average wind speed was merely 4.9 m/s (17.7 km/h), while a utility-scale wind power plant requires at least 6 m/s (21.6 km/h), according to a 2005 report by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).
The report cautioned that a difference of just 1 km/h in wind speed could significantly bring down the productivity of a wind farm.
However, Falcon/GE project’s local leader Umar Manik told Minivan News at the time that engineering advances would enable the Gaafaru wind farm to run on a minimum wind speed of 5.7 m/s.
The utility of wind in the Maldives remains an open debate.
“Wind is an option, with other renewable energies,” said Assistant Director of Energy at the Environmental Ministry, Ahmed Ali. “The north has been found to be most productive area for wind turbines, but studies of met masts installed in the South, in Addu, are showing that it is feasible there as well.”
Meanwhile, an article published in the Telegraph critiqued the Maldives’ goal of achieving carbon neutrality via wind and solar power as expensive and difficult, particularly because the wind “scarcely blows in the islands for months on end.”
“What do you do in the eight months without enough wind?” asked President Nasheed’s Energy Advisor Mike Mason at Soneva Fushi’s Slow Life Eco Symposium earlier this year.
“What you do is put up solar. In that case, why bother to put up wind at all? With solar the sun rises every day – it is wonderfully predictable.”
Minivan News was unable to reach officials in the President’s Office, Economic Development Ministry, STELCO and any traceable affiliate of the Falcon Energy Consortium for comment at time of press.
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Steven David Jones and his team are con artists. First there was a Danny Boutin and who has vanished now. There also appear to be some Omar with no clear ties with any of the party in the scene.
The bogus Falcon Energy is a paper company registered in Isle of Man with a paid up capital of GBP1.
Maldives Government should try them in court and save other Maldivians from their tricks.
The problem here is that we have a lot of people spinning around Nasheed feeding him a whole load of bull shit. Fact of the matter is, these folk don't really know what they are talking about. None of them have got ANY experience of having run a renewable energy project. Never mind, running a project, they don't even know the basic economics of such a project.
Where's that chap Sappe', who is supposedly the "Scientific Advisor" to the President? We have had so many phantom, fanciful projects thrown up in the recent past, none of which had any chance of success whatsover.
There's a whole world of difference between running a puny little turbine up a mast and a commercial scale wind farm capable of generating enough electricity to make it worthwhile. Me thinks, that someone here doesn't really understand what engineering scale up really is about!
It's a whole world of difference between your university test tube world and true industrial scale. There's an entire knowledge gap there as well. A lot of R&D is done by successful renewable enterprises and that information is not publicly available. It's wishful thinking that "back of the fag packet" calculations can turn the Maldives into a carbon neutral country. Please get a reality check and hire some real engineers, please!
Thank you Minivan for confirming our suspicions that President Nasheeds government made a major blunder.
Therefore thanks to Minivan we can now conclude that the current government and its leader is a bumbling fool that needs to be removed at the soonest.
"Steven David Jones and his team are con artists," says Naseer on Sun, 18th Dec 2011 8:49 PM .
True! And it is very likely that Yaamin & Janiyaa Nazim is behind these things in inviting fellow con-artists to come and try out their luck when ever the current government opens any tender.
These two local con-artists have has many paper companies and gobbled in millions from the state for 30 years. It's likely that they want to bring others like him into this country and also eventually tips off the media about the particular investor being bogus. Motive? (1) To create public hatred against this government; (2) delay the government's projects; (3) and hopefully to win the 2013 election; (4) get away with the cases against them for good by the verdicts of their own judges and commissions.
@Ahmed bin suvaadeeb
Well said. Lots of bullshit (or populist ideas) is being fed to the President in all areas specially renewable energy, climate change, islam, human rights, privatisation - Nasheed need advisors with wisdom, experience and knowledge of the country
The Government should be more transparent if they want to not get duped like this. It is their own fault for not improving transparency in Government affairs from top to bottom. Basically due to all these foreign investment failures, only the country gets hurt. No future big foreign investors would go into Maldives without thinking twice.
Why not the President ask Transparency International to set up an office in Maldives to independently scrutinize all Government bodies?
I searched for Falcon energy when the project was announced, and i remember commenting here on Minivan that these guys had dubious credentials.How amazing is it that a government would enter into an agreement with a "renowned multi national company" which does not even have a website.
Muad,
Your idea, while very good, is fraught with a single miscalculation.
A lot of us assume that any institution if multinational or foreign would be free from influence. Yet the fact of the matter is that institutions are after all just groupings of people and no matter how well organized and regulated, they are always open to influence especially when the stakes are high.
Take Transparency's local Chapter here in the Maldives. Its most vocal member at the forefront is Aiman Rasheed. He is a brother of Zaheena Rasheed who is a popular and well-known MDP activist who grew up under the direct tutelage and support of President Nasheed. These links create leverage that cannot be ignored. Such institutions are rendered toothless by these connections. Look at Mariyath who also works at Transparency Maldives. She is the younger sister of Aishath Velezinee. Once again can we ignore the obvious conflict of interest?
The MDP has plants inside BBC as well. What ordinary citizen would expect respected news agencies such as BBC to have party activists inside them. Their camouflage is complete when their skin is white.
So battling corruption, difficult though it is, needs to become a priority for the people. We are the ones who perpetuate corruption by accepting bribes and handouts on a daily basis. The average Maldivian does not think corruption is wrong if it benefits themselves. This happens because we do not have an economic ambition to compete with our neighbors nor any respect or confidence in our governments and institutions.
More con artists and speciulators trying to make money out of wind
This is just the tip of the ice berg ... There are so many yet to surface