Cuba's Two Wind Farms Survive Hurricane Sandy

Tech 11/06/2012 @ 5:16PM

Cuba's Two Wind Farms Survive Hurricane Sandy

Before Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast of the US, she actually hit
the Caribbean first. Two of the hardest hit islands were Haiti and Cuba.
Thousands of houses were destroyed in the Eastern part of Cuba around
Santiago de Cuba, the country's second largest city, and power supplies
in the area were and still are affected by the hurricane.

However, in the province of Holguín, there were two wind farms installed
in 2008 and 2010 one with six 850 kW turbines and the other with six 750
kW machines. Both of those wind farms were hit by hurricane Sandy with
wind speeds of up to 110 miles per hour and neither of them had any
major damage and continued to provide electricity for the local grid.

"Hurricane Sandy has reminded us of the vulnerability of our
civilization by natural disasters, like the earthquake and tsunami in
Japan a year ago. Also similar like 20 months ago, Sandy has
demonstrated the high risks of nuclear power and the reliability of wind
power, even under such extreme conditions," said Stefan Gsänger, WWEA
Secretary General. "The survival of the Cuban wind farms is a strong
sign, like the Japanese wind farm last year which was hit by the
earthquake and a huge tsunami wave without being damaged. All this
happened while nuclear and fossil power stations have not been able to
provide electricity any more. We should learn our lessons from this and
accelerate as fast as possible the shift towards decentralized renewable
energy such as wind power, all over the world."

According to Professor Conrado Moreno, Co-Chair of the WWEC2013 and
Professor at the Cuban Center for Renewable Energy Technologies CETER,
Cuba installed the two wind farms in Gibara knowing they may be hit by a
hurricane took all the necessary provisions to make them hurricane-proof.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenniferhicks/2012/11/06/cubas-two-wind-farms-survive-hurricane-sandy/