ONE ENCOURAGING aspect of the recently announced project for wind-generated electricity at a Wind Farm to be located in Manchester is the bona fides of the players involved, a refreshing change from some of the donees of the Intech fund. Of total project cost of US$25 million, the Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ) will be providing equity of US$3 million and National Commercial Bank will be putting in loan funds of US$16 million. This appears to be sensible equity to loan leverage in financial terms. The very low-key level of Minister Paulwell's announcement of the project lends to its credibility and we are pleased to draw its important potential to public attention. Grant funding by the Netherlands, though small in comparison, mirrors and is more generous than on-going World Bank financing for wind-generated electricity projects in rural China and parts of Africa. Some 4,000 megawatts of wind power are either on line or under construction in America.
The proposed Wind Farm at Wigton in Manchester is expected to come on stream next year and will be managed by PCJ which, over the years has done valuable research into sources of renewable energy to lessen Jamaica's dependence on foreign oil which is ravenous in eating up foreign exchange. The Wind Farm will have an average output of about 7 megawatts, which will be sold to the Jamaica Public Service Company at an already contracted price of US 5.6 cents per kilowatt hour which compares with a rate of about US 4.2 cents in England where large wind farms are operated on a commercial basis. Announcement of the contracted price by the Minister is a gesture towards transparency which we welcome.
The basic physics of wind-generated electricity is relatively simple: turbines mounted on towers convert wind energy into mechanical energy, which in turn, is converted to electrical energy via generators or alternators. In such a process, God-given wind is the renewable source of electricity with no environmental pollution. What Jamaica brings uniquely to the venture is an island geography swept with breezes from the sea by day and breezes from the mountains by night.
Minister Paulwell has pointed out that the target for renewable energy established by the Government is 5 per cent of capacity in year 2005. The Wigton Wind Farm will be an important advance in achieving this goal.
