Seychelles Gets Country's First Windfarm

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources India (Delhi, India)--With the commissioning of Port Victoria Windfarm Seychelles Island has got its first operational windfarm. Located at the Mahé Island, the 6-megawatt (MW) wind farm is the country's first renewable energy project.

Seychelles is a 115-island country spanning an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, around 1,500 kilometers east of the mainland Africa in the northeast of Madagascar Island. The project has been developed by Masdar, a renewable energy development arm of Government of Abu Dhabi Mubadala Development Company (Masdar, Abu Dhabi). The $28 million project was funded by Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) (Abu Dhabi).

The Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract for the Port Victoria Wind Farm was awarded to South Korean wind-power equipment manufacturer, Unison Company Limited (018000:KOSDAQ) (Seoul, South Korea).

The wind farm consists of eight wind turbines of 750 kilowatt (kW) each. Five of the wind turbines are installed at Romainville Island, while three others are installed at the southern tip of Ile du Port.

These Windfarms representing 8% of Seychelles's installed capacity have now started operating at the main island of Mahé supplying electricity to more than 2,100 homes. The Island has been largely dependent on expensive diesel generators, with fuel accounting for around 25% of the country's total net imports. The Port Victoria wind farm is likely to save around 1.6 million liters of fuel a year. The Seychelles' Energy Policy 2010-2030 sets a target of contributing of 15% of its energy need from renewable energy sources by 2030.

For the first two years Unison will operate the wind farm in collaboration with the Public Utilities Corporation (PUC) (Mahe, Seychelles), the Seychelles public utility company, as part of a progressive hand-over. Unison will train the workforce at PUC during the period after which PUC will take-over control of the windfarm.

PUC is a statutory body responsible for the generation, transmission and distribution of electric power on Mahé, Praslin and the inner islands. PUC generates electricity from heavy fuel oil and light fuel oil using diesel engines. The installed capacity on the main island of Mahe is presently around 69 MW, and on Praslin is 12 MW.

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