The Public Infrastructure Ministry’s Hinterland Electrification Company Inc (HEC) has successfully installed its 60-meter Wind Resource Measuring Station at Onverwagt, Berbice, Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice).
The importance of this wind tower is to yield quality wind data, which can be used by wind project investors to develop wind farms along Guyana’s coasts.
Workers installing the wind tower
The Public Infrastructure Ministry recognises that high-quality wind measurement is an essential ingredient in determining the feasibility of the wind project. The Ministry’s expectation is that within one to two years of high-quality data from tall met-masts (60-80 meters height), wind project developers can prepare a bankable feasibility report which can then lead to financing of wind farm projects.
The tower consists of: three wind speed sensors at 61 metres, 45 metres and 30 metres, wind direction sensors at 58 metres and 30.3 metres, temperature & relative humidity sensor at 20 metres, and air pressure sensor 3 metres.
This project is a cooperative effort between the Government of Guyana, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Global Environmental Facility (GEF).
The key goal of this project is to promote renewable energy technologies through Guyana’s Sustainable Energy Program in urban and off-grid areas with objectives to increase energy access in Guyana, reduce long-term operational costs (primarily fuel costs) of on-grid generation and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector.
Over the next six months, the Hinterland Electrification Company will be installing three more wind towers to facilitate the agenda of instituting renewable energy sources along the coast of Guyana.
