FEASIBILITY STUDY FOR A LARGE WIND FARM AT GULF ... - NREA

ARAB REPUBLIC OF EGYPT
MINISTRY OF ELECTRICITY AND ENERGY
NEW AND RENEWABLE ENERGY AUTHORITY (NREA)
FEASIBILITY STUDY FOR A LARGE WIND FARM
AT GULF OF EL ZAYT
financed by
KfW-Entwicklungsbank
Ornithological Assessment
Summary of Findings and Conclusions
August 15 th , 2007
ENGINEERING SERVICES AND
CONSULTANCY

General
The project area extends over 70 km from South to North and about 9 km West to East ad-
jacent to the Gabal el Zayt area, which is a registered IBA area. It is situated on one of the
most important flyways between tropical Africa, Europe and the Middle East. The ornitho-
logical judgement is based on one spring and one autumn field monitoring, carried out from
26 observation points equally distributed over the project area in distances of 5 km to each
other. The observation points had been attended at equally distributed daytimes by two ob-
servation teams working in shift in order to achieve representative samples. While the sam-
ples for the individual observation points had to remain quite small a good spatial resolution
was achieved. Almost all of the project area is located on plains. A major influence to the
shape of migration routes seems to be exercised by weather/wind conditions. Considering
above, i.e. small observation samples for individual sites and not very pronounced migration
routes inside the project area, the statistical evidence of the one year field observation data
has to remain limited and calls for conservative judgement.
The judgement of the area is mainly based on the occurrence of soaring and gliding mi-
grants, as these less manoeuvrable species are more endangered by wind park construc-
tions. From the strict ornithological standpoint it is highly recommended to avoid construction
of wind parks in the overall area. Considering competing environmental interests, such as
bird protection and renewable energy generation and implied CO2 avoidance, the NREA
area is zoned according to the weight of the expected environmental impact. The zones are
shown in Figure 1 enclosed.
Zone 1: Wind Park Construction is banned
This part belongs to the main migration corridor heading towards Sinai. Local differences of
migration density within this zone are considered to be accidental, as migration routes vary
according to wind conditions.

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Zone 2: Construction Subject to Further Ornithological Monitoring and Verification
In this area of about 94 km² heavy migration in the direction to the coastal mountain chain,
Gabal El Zayt, was recorded during spring. Apparently, birds had followed the mountain
chain of the foothills of the Red Sea Mountains so far north that they had to fly in south-
easterly directions to reach the coastal mountains. That means that this zone is situated in
the border area of the Zone 1 and might even belong to it. Based on the findings of the one
year ornithological investigations an utilisation of this area for wind power development has
to be rejected. Further ornithological monitoring and verification may lead to revised results.
Zone 3: Construction critical
In the Yellow Zone there is no immediately recognisable topographical bottleneck. The ter-
rain opens out and offers the birds more room to manoeuvre. Most birds moving through
here are heading in the direction of Suez. Any wind farm installation in that area would re-
quire technical avoidance/mitigation measures at the plants and in the infrastructure itself as
to the best practicable standard. Moreover, a careful post installation monitoring programme
needs to be executed to assess, whether the impacts in a wind park will remain on accept-
able level or whether additional measures will have to be carried out.
Consequences for the development of wind energy in the NREA area:
From the ornithological findings the following conclusions are drawn by the Consultant:
According to the ornithological assessment a wind park construction in the Zone 1 shall be
definitely banned. This is valid as well for Zone 2 (about 94 km²), but there is still a chance
that further ornithological monitoring may justify some wind power development in this zone.
From the present point of view these two areas have definitely to be excluded.
The frame conditions for a possible wind power development in Zone 3 for the expansion
stage 2010/2011 can be seen from Figure 2. The total area of Zone 3 is about 154 km². Out
of that the following portions are critical with regard to wind power development:
• A low land zone with some salt lakes in the Northeast, a Sebkha, would be unfavour-
able for wind power development as it would require extraordinary construction
measures at significantly elevated costs. Moreover, this area is ecologically more

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sensitive than the vast desert grounds of the overall area. It is under control of the
Egyptian Petrol Company, which has all rights on it for an unlimited period. This olive
green coloured area (Figure 2) shall be kept free from wind power development. The
non-utilisation of that area would have a positive ornithological side effect as it would
deliver additional resting and manoeuvring areas for birds and would keep the mini-
mum distance between a Wind Park and the sea shores to more than 2 km.
• The adjacent blue-gray area of about 37 km² as well is under complete control of the
Egyptian Petrol Company (EPC) for an indefinite period. Unless an agreement with
EPC on sustainable wind power utilisation is achieved, this area cannot be consid-
ered for wind energy utilisation.
• Deducting a “mountainous” portion, i.e. an area with hills at altitudes of 100 m to
about 200 m above sea level, which is unfavourable for wind power development due
to high construction cost, the usable land would be about 67 km² (Figure 2, green
coloured area). A rough estimate based on a general spacing of 14 x D to the main
wind direction and 4 x D perpendicular to that showed that this area can accommo-
date 420 MW, i.e. KfW 200 MW and JBIC 220 MW. Although this estimate considers
already smaller contingencies (about 5 %), one has to consider the undulated relief
of some portions and the need to avoid Wadi beds for erection. This will necessarily
lead to spatial variation of spacing in some areas.

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Transmission bottlenecks for a first stage wind power development
For the wind power development stage 2010/2011 it is assumed that the double circuit 230
kV transmission line Hurghada to Zafarana will be available. At that stage the nominal in-
stalled power at Zafarana would be 540 MW. Load flow calculations with n-1 assumptions
according to generally accepted standards (one circuit out of operation because of defects
or line cleaning) showed bottlenecks in case of the shut down of one circuit between Zafa-
rana and Sokhna and full wind power generation. In that case 20 % of the Zafarana Wind
Power would have to be routed towards Hurghada allowing an additional feed in at the Gulf
of Zayt of 300 MW only. This bottleneck can be taken care off either
• technically by reinforcement of the Zafarana transmission lines (e.g. additional line
from Zafarana to the central power grid), or
• economically by considering loss of production during Zafarana – Sokhna TL circuit
shut down and during coinciding high wind power production times. If considering a
JBIC and an KfW wind park at the Gulf of Zayt area with a total installed power of
420 MW this would lead to a loss of wind energy production in the order of 2 %.