Las Cocas and Quilvio Cabera
Wind Farms
In a very surprising development, Dominican Republic has
announced plans to set up wind turbines, the first such initiative in Caribbean
islands. Built with a budget of US$100 million, it is estimated that country’s
imports of oil will be reduced by 700,000 barrels a year, which in turn saves
US$20 million, as well as reducing CO2 emissions by 1,700 tonnes. A 33MW plant
has already been opened in 2011.
During the construction process, the main challenges faced
were connecting the wind farm to the existing grid. “The southwestern part of
the Dominican Republic is sparsely populated, however, and there are no
transmission lines in the vicinity of Los Cocos. Some have posed greater
problems than others, and some land permits are still pending. Siting
installations far from existing infrastructure clearly presents issues beyond
just the cost of connecting to the grid.” (blogs.worldwatch) The company has
solved these by paying for building new transmission lines. Also locales have
been educated about the benefits of using renewable energy.
