An Italian technological “first” will provide people living on Indonesia's islands with a precious asset: electricity.
This afternoon, at the Rome headquarters of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, UNIDO, the letter of intent was signed by Ponte di Archimede S.p.A. (PdA), with its Chairman Elio Matacena, and Walinusa Energi, with its Chairman Emil Abeng, the Indonesian alternative energies development company. This has launched the start-up of a project to set in motion a programme to disseminate the Kobold patented vertical axis turbine to produce electricity from marine currents being promoted by UNIDO. After monitoring the efficiency of a series of turbines currently being studied worldwide, UNIDO has chosen the Ponte di Archimede model as the most advanced in terms of production performance.
“At the end of May,” said Elio Matacena, “we shall be incorporating an Italian-Indonesian joint venture company in Jakarta in which PdA will have a 51% stake, with Walinusa having the remaining 49%. The company will build the prototype of the Kobold turbine, cofinanced by UNIDO and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the present scientific cooperation protocol with UNIDO. The turbine’s production capacity has already been tested in Messina, but the technology now has to be adapted to the faster currents of the Pacific. This will hugely increase the production capacity of the turbine because the marine currents at Messina average 2 metres/second, whereas in Indonesia the average is about twice that rate: this will boost energy output eightfold, according to the law of physics that the energy produced is proportional to velocity cubed. After building a prototype the mass production phase will begin.”
“Indonesia is made up of about 17,000 islands, of which 12,000 are inhabited,” said Emily Abeng, “making it an ideal site for the dissemination of this clean and renewable source of energy. At the present time 90% of the population on some 5000 small islands forming part of our Republic are not connected to the national energy grid, and the people still have to use candles and fuel oil to light their homes. We have already decided on the site where the pilot plant will be installed: the island of Selayer, with 700,000 inhabitants, and which already has its own “traditional” power station, although it only caters for 25% of the population. This prototype will be the first example of a Kobold network that will form an "Energy Farm" with the output capacity to meet the energy demand of the whole island: 7.000 kW.”
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