Lathbury wind turbine plan sparks discussion on clean energy and conservation

A plan to install vertical wind turbines in the Lathbury Sports Complex has been filed with the Town Planner and seeks to reduce Gibraltar’s reliance on traditional energy sources while minimising the impact on local wildlife and the environment.

The project is at a very early stage but the man behind it, Nicholas Miller from CRE Ltd, believes that if he gets clearance for the pilot scheme, it could potentially be rolled out beyond Gibraltar too.
He said he already has interest from EU countries who are keen to see the results of the pilot project, assuming it gets off the ground.

Mr Miller has nearly five decades of global experience in the construction industry, including construction of Lathbury Sports Complex itself.

He is seeking permission to install 40 compact, silent vertical wind turbines along the top of the boundary wall in Lathbury.

The turbines, which will be in both red and white to celebrate Gibraltar’s national colours, are about two metres in height and, once installed on poles, will be about 2.9m high in total, lower than the Lathbury floodlights.

Mr Miller told the Chronicle that his vertical wind turbines operate quietly at 40 decibels and have a zero-fatality record for birds and bats, which he hopes will address concerns raised by GONHS this week about wind energy’s impact on wildlife.

“Even in the vertical turbine industry, they have multiple different types of blades,” he said, adding there was often misconception about wind turbines and their impact. “The verticals can be somewhat dangerous, but not as dangerous as the horizontals.”

“With silent turbines, the highest decibels they put out is 40 decibels. That's the same sound level as in the library.”

In a statement, GONHS said the organisation acknowledged that vertical axis turbines are said to be less harmful to wildlife than horizontal ones.

But while GONHS reiterated its support for renewable energy in principle, it stressed the need to protect the Rock’s wildlife and landscape, adding that any risk to Gibraltar’s biodiversity is unacceptable.

“Whilst vertical axis turbines may be less harmful to wildlife, hazards are still known to occur,” GONHS said in a statement.

“Any risk of death to flying animals must be deemed unacceptable where a site is very important for migrating birds, particularly birds of prey and foraging bats, local populations of which have already experienced very worrying declines.”

The organisation noted that both groups are protected by international conventions to which Gibraltar is a signatory and that the Rock is of global importance for migrating birds of prey.

Mr Miller believes there is no risk to birds or bats and says his design is specifically intended to eliminate danger to wildlife.

“Even the verticals can be somewhat dangerous, but not as dangerous as the horizontals,” he said.

“They estimate that with [verticals], there’s one to two bird fatalities per turbine per year. That’s the open bladed [verticals].”

“The [horizontals] have an estimated two to 14 bird fatalities because the birds can’t see the blades when they come dropping down.”

“And the same with bats. Bats throw out their echo, and if it goes through the blades, they try to go through it, because it’s an open blade source.”

“But my vertical turbines are what they call spiral blade or tulip blades. Those are solid blade turbines, and there’s zero fatalities.”

“The bats have no problem with them. They can put their echo out. It’s a solid, solid thing, so it’s not an issue.”

In addition, the turbines he hopes to install have no mechanical parts and operate via a magnetic system, meaning there is very little maintenance needed.

According to Mr Miller, this type of turbine has “no known end of life.”

"If one of the turbines did stop for a reason, it takes 45 minutes to swop one out and you're back up running,” he said.

“It's not like when these horizontals go down, they're down for more than a year. The expense to repair them is incredibly high.”

The choice of Lathbury as a location for this pilot project stemmed from two factors, one being his knowledge of the site having worked on its construction.

Additionally, having worked on numerous other construction sites on the Rock, Mr Miller said the wind availability in that location was best.

“Ground wind data is often overlooked,” he said.

“Our proposed site benefits from steady winds of up to 17 metres per second, comfortably above the turbines’ requirements of 10."

“The Nature Reserve takes up 40% of [Gibraltar].”

“[Environment Minister] John Cortes would never let us touch the Nature Reserve.”

“It’s unfortunate, because we could do brown poles and green turbines and make it look just like a tree, but John's not going to budge on that one, which I don't have an issue with it, but Lathbury is in that wind zone.”

Each turbine can generate 131,400Kwh per year. By comparison, a 500 watts solar panel typically generates 1,277Kwh per year.

To illustrate what that means in practice, assessment of utility bills showed a three-bedroom home with two occupants used roughly 5,500Kwh over a period of 12 months.

Having been an early adopter of solar panels, Mr Miller also believes that solar panels on the Rock are not being utilised to their full potential.

"In the 70s, we had to make our own solar panels. A lot of people don't even understand how they work,” he said.

“Solar panels are simply a silicone and we heat it up and take the cream off the top, lay it out on a pan and pour arsenic in it with the two electrical leads. When the sun hits the arsenic, it agitates the current, and below that's where your solar cells are first."

On the Rock the vast majority of these are fixed. He does not believe in the expense of a tracker system for panels which follow the sun throughout the day.

But "if you do the proper latitude and longitude setting, then there's only four levels that you really need, fall, spring, summer, and winter.”

“One guy can go out there and switch 1,000 panels in an hour."

Mr Miller confirmed that the intended use of the wind generated electricity is to feed the power back into the local grid, as per power payment agreements that exist for solar panels.

He also sees the project as a pilot scheme.

"I've contacted all 27 European countries. They like my turbine. They want my turbine. They want to see one project, yeah, one project for me puts me in the gold seat,” he said.

“There’s real appetite for innovative, durable wind energy solutions. A successful project here could put Gibraltar at the forefront,” he said.

The proposal has yet to be discussed by the Development and Planning Commission.

Mr Miller has also yet to secure permission from the Gibraltar Government, which owns the Lathbury facility.