Progress Update – Octubre 1, 2007
The San Cristobal Wind Project Successfully Completed
The San Cristobal Wind Project successfully completed its commissioning phase in September and has entered its Operational Phase on October 1, 2007. The wind turbines were erected in August 2007 and commissioned in September. After successfully completing functional and reliability testing, the units were considered ready for Operational Service. For the final two weeks in September, the wind turbines provided more than 50% of the islands electrical demand as final adjustments were made by the engineers to the system controls.
The Wind Project enters its Operational Phase during the high-wind season on the island. It is expected that the wind turbines will provide between 60%-80% of the islands electrical demand throughout 4Q 2007.
The Wind Project has been registered as a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project under the Kyoto Protocol. The project will now receive Certified Emission Reduction (CER) credits for the diesel generator generation effectively reduced by the wind turbines.
Construction activities are now complete on the wind project. The construction forces are demobilizing.
The San Cristobal Wind Project is being operated by Eólica San Cristobal S.A. (EOLICSA). Luis Vintimilla is the General Manager, Jose Moscoso is the Operational Manager and Jose Jara is the MADE Wind Turbine Representative. Both Mr. Moscoso and Mr. Jara reside in San Cristobal and are in charge of the operation and maintenance of the wind-diesel hybrid system.
The San Cristobal Wind Project reached a new milestone with the delivery of the first wind turbine components in Ecuador. The wind turbine towers and foundation anchor cages departed the port of Ferrol, Spain on January 6th and arrived in Guayaquil, Ecuador on January 22, 2007. The wind towers are approximately 50 meters in height and were shipped in two sections. The anchor cages are to be embedded in the concrete and connect the wind turbine towers to the large foundation.
On the island of San Cristobal in the Galapagos, Phase 1 construction activities are nearing completion with the construction of the road to the hill where the wind turbines will be located, installation of the first 3 km section of transmission line which is buried underground, and construction of the pier extension to facilitate off-loading the heavy equipment at Puerto Baquiezro Moreno, the port on San Cristobal.
In late February the wind towers and anchor cages, along with cement supplies, concrete mixer trucks, and a mobile concrete processing plant will be transported to San Cristobal as Phase II construction activities begin. Phase II construction activities start with the construction of the large foundation required to support the wind turbines. This is a large logistical challenge as the three wind turbine foundations are each 11 meters wide x 11 meters long, varying from 1.3 to 3.2 meters in depth. This corresponds to approximately 170 cubic yards of concrete per wind turbine. Rather than importing the aggregate and sand needed for the foundation construction, based on studies performed during the environmental assessment, these materials are being mined at a quarry located near the wind park to minimize the possibility of introduce species foreign to the island.
The foundations will be constructed in the March-April timeframe to support the installation of the wind turbine nacelles and blades that are scheduled to depart Spain in early April 2007.
The Wind Project team has been very busy with final development activities to allow authorization for full equipment manufacturing and construction activities.
In February, the project team, along with wind turbine manufacturer MADE of Spain and constructor Santos-CMI of Ecuador, conducted coordination and planning workshop with our local utility partner Elecgalapagos. Santos-CMI has conducted final geotechnical investigations and has sub-contracted with an active quarry on San Cristobal Island for the mining and stockpiling of aggregates that will be needed for the concrete to be used in the wind turbine foundations.
The project is ready to proceed to construction when the final development issues are resolved. The Commercial Trust constitution identifies key issues to be resolved for the project to reach the Point of Initiation (POI) for the Wind Project. These issues are primarily intended to mitigate risk to the project.
The POI was initially December 31, 2005 but was revised to March 31, 2006. The primary reason for delays has been the lengthy process and approvals needed for Elecgalapagos S.A. to legally join the Commercial Trust, and resultant final approval of the Generating Permit and Ecuadorian Government FERUM Subsidy funding
At this point, the wind project has received the Land Easement approval for the wind park site, its Generation Permit certificate, and the Ecuadorian Attorney General has accepted the proposed Elecgalapagos Adhesion agreement with the Commercial Trust. The Environmental License is expected to be received at any moment. The remaining major milestone is the legal review currently underway at the Ecuadorian National Controller, which is required before executing the needed agreements with Elecgalapagos to allow the project to move forward to construction.
When the Point of Initiation is reached, manufacturing and construction schedules will be updated. The project expected completion date has moved into 2007.