IF NEGOTIATIONS are successful, the Barbados Light and Power’s (BL&P) wind farm project at Lamberts, St Lucy, could be up turning by year end.
And the utility company’s director of operations, Johann Greaves, has reassured residents of the area that noise will not be a problem.
“There are going to be no negative impacts from wind,” he stressed.
Greaves, who was speaking to Heather-Lynn’s Habitat as he led a tour of the company’s solar panel plant at Trents, St Lucy, said BL&P was still working on the design and some planning work was still ongoing.
“At this point in time we are still trying to work out access to the land with the landowner. We are still trying to finalise an agreement with the landowner to have access to the land and, at the same time, we are working on the design of that project. If we can have the conclusion to the negotiations of the land, we anticipate that the project will start up later this year,” he said.
He acknowledged that residents had expressed concern about noise pollution from the wind turbines which were to be installed on the land at Lamberts Plantation.
But Greaves said the utility company had done “extensive studies” to discover the impact the turbines would have on the surrounding areas.
“One of the conditions of the planning approval that we would have received back then was that we needed to do monitoring of the noise in the surrounding areas before and after construction of the turbines,” he revealed.
“So we have measuring equipment in place in the surrounding areas which are giving us background noise level.”
He said the technology had improved to the point where today’s turbines were much quieter than those of a decade ago.
“The technologies have developed over the years so the turbines that are now available actually have even a lower sound output than the turbines which would have been contemplated back then when we would have first conceptualised this project.”
The project is expected to generate ten megawatts of energy. (HLE)