Venezuela president Hugo Chavez calls for development of wind energy

[Judi Lynn]

Venezuela president Hugo Chavez calls for development of wind energy
James Quilter, Windpower Monthly, 23 February 2010, 10:03am

VENEZUELA: Venezuela president Hugo Chavez has announced the country is planning to develop wind energy in an attempt to head off a possible energy crisis.

Chavez declared a national emergency on February 8 after a drought severely affected water levels at the Guri Lake, home to Venezuela's largest dam.

Water could soon fall below the level needed to produce 6.3GW. Venezuela is purchasing 880MW of GE of generators in an attempt to alleviate the problem.

There are reports Venezuela is co-operating with Argentina to develop a joint wind power project. Chavez has also said the country would look to develop nuclear power in an effort to avoid a repeat of the current situation.

Additionally Chavez is attempting to buy electricity from Columbia and is also believed to be talking to Cuba in an attempt to forestall a crisis.

http://www.windpowermonthly.com/news/985673/Venezuela-president-Hugo-Chavez-calls-development-wind-energy/

[protocol rv]

1. Clarification: What is really going on

Chavez and others discussed wind power in the past. There's a site on Paraguana which is indeed very suitable for a wind power farm. However, to build a wind power farm Venezuela doesn't need to talk to Argentina. What it needs is to develop a basis document (what in the real world we call a Terms of Reference) for the construction of such a wind farm, including the basic engineering, and the spare parts. Once this is done, under Venezuelan law, the design and construction are put up for bids - there's no need to limit the project to a discussion with Argentina, where the wind farms are built using private industry, and materials supplied by private fabricators. Putting "Argentina" (meaning the Fernandez-Kirchner mafia) in the way creates more opportunities for corruption and cronyism.

But the crisis in Venezuela is here now, and no matter how much they have on paper, what are we going to do if it doesn't rain in March over the Csroni river watershed? The evident answer, which should be carried out right now, is to shut down all the basic industries near the Orinoco river, the Aluminum smelters, the steel plants, which consume a lot of electricity. Only such a radical move can avoid a total system collapse. And it should be done as soon as possible, as a contingency should it fail to rain. If it rains, then they can be put back on. This would mean at most closing them for 45 days, because we should expect some rain by late March.

I wonder, do the people in charge in the government understand that miscellanous foreigners they're bringing to Venezuela don't have any more mental capacity than Venezuelans? He has chosen to surround himself with incompetent yes men, who are rewarded with high posts according to their ability to applaud very loud, and hold their bladders, during a Chavez marathon speech (having been present at a Chavez speech, I can assure you sitting there and holding your bladder for 5 hours can be excruciating).

[Wilms]

2. Thanks for mentioning "Terms of reference"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terms_of_reference

I learned something from that.

Are you recommending that VZ design and build their own equipment?