First Large-Scale Wind Farms for Dominican Republic – Wind Turbines supplied by Vestas

A $100 million wind power project built by public and private investors and Vestas’ wind turbines, began operating earlier this month (October) near the western towns of Juancho and Enriquillo, in the South Western corner of the Dominican Republic. This represents the first utility scale wind farm in the Dominican Republic. In their first phase the farms will provide 33 megawatts of wind power for the country. The opening ceremony was attended by President Leonel Fernandez (above).

The Los Cocos wind farm (see photo below) consists of 14 Vestas V90 turbines, each with an installed capacity of 1.8 megawatts (MW). Quilvio Cabrera wind farm holds 5 Vestas V82 turbines, each with an installed capacity of 1.65 MW. Together, the two farms will have a combined installed capacity of 33.5 MW.

The Turbines at Los Cocos1 First Large Scale Wind Farms for Dominican Republic   Wind Turbines supplied by Vestas

Based on seven years of data collection on site, the capacity factor of the facilities is anticipated to be 33 per cent, which means that they will produce an average of around 11 MW, or just under 100 Gigawatt-hours per year (not accounting for downtime due to maintenance). The Los Cocos project alone is expected to avoid the emission of 125 thousand metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions from over 20,000 passenger vehicles in the U.S.

The President said that without any doubt this will be the first of many wind farms. These wind parks are a “transcendental” event for the country, since they mark the starting point for large investments in the sector or renewable energy.

The country’s electricity sector, which relies on costly oil imports, has been in what some would call a crisis for decades and consumers have suffered frequent power blackouts. This has been an impediment to economic growth.

Windfarm in Carribeans1 First Large Scale Wind Farms for Dominican Republic   Wind Turbines supplied by Vestas

As with most ventures that are the first of their kind, Los Cocos and Quilvio Cabrera should offer valuable lessons for future wind development in the Caribbean. A number of wind power projects already exist in the Caribbean — in Jamaica, Cuba, Aruba and Guadelupe — but the Dominican Republic facility was believed to be the largest of its kind so far. A second phase of the wind farm project would add an additional 52 MW in 2012.

The Electricity Generating Company Haina (EGE Haina) began investigating the viability of the site in 2002 and spent years obtaining all the necessary permits and approvals.

Turbine Substation and Terminus of the Transmission Line at Cruce de Cabral1 First Large Scale Wind Farms for Dominican Republic   Wind Turbines supplied by Vestas
Turbine, Substation and Terminus of the Transmission Line at Cruce de Cabral

During the construction process, EGE Haina has faced two specific challenges. First, EGE Haina was responsible for connecting the wind farm to the existing grid. The south western part of the Dominican Republic is sparsely populated, however and there are no transmission lines in the vicinity of Los Cocos. EGE Haina built a substation on location and had to run 54 kilometres of new transmission lines to reach the closest switch yard, located in Cruce de Cabral, Barahona.

Turbine, Substation and Terminus of the Transmission Line at Cruce de Cabral

Secondly EGE Haina has had to do some work to win over local farmers and residents of nearby towns to make sure they were on-side. All of the land on which Los Cocos and Quilvio Cabrera are located belongs to the Dominican Agrarian Reform Institute (IAD), which is responsible for distributing land to small farmers and EGE Haina therefore pays rent to many individuals. However the farmers who work the surrounding fields are generally happy with EGE Haina because the wind farms’ guards provide security for their fields and the company has improved the roads in their area. Some locals were wary, however. They were worried that the wind farm could actually result in less electricity being available to local consumers, because connection to the national grid would mean that all power generated would be taken out of the area. Some were also simply mistrustful of an unfamiliar technology or opposed to giving away local farmland.

This required careful education of the locals about wind power and its project and by investing in local communities. On the investment side, EGE Haina paid to install solar panels on a local school, while on education, they worked with fishermen to teach them about proper maintenance of their fish stocks as well as explaining what the wind turbines would do.

EGE Haina is also discussing the possibility of diverting some of the energy generated by the wind farm directly to the local distribution network so that it can help increase the availability of power locally. It is thought that these initiatives have convinced farmers and Dominicans generally that the coming of wind farms to their country is a good thing!

Carribean without Cuba 300x1601 First Large Scale Wind Farms for Dominican Republic   Wind Turbines supplied by Vestas