Tuesday, May 14, 2019 - 10:37

Trevor Hammond clearly does not listen and does not understand. At last week’s press conference on the new Solar power plant, the Minister clearly stated that the plant had come at no cost to Government, in the same way as the Ecowave plant. Both followed expressions of interest by the relevant parties, which were the only ones which were progressed by the parties out of several that came forward and were entertained at the same time when it became clear back in 2012 that with the new Government, Gibraltar was at last moving into renewables, says Govt.

Regarding the amount of solar power produced, once again Mr Hammond fails to listen or understand. It may be his Maths. A plant that produces 800 kW (0.8mW) when an average figure for consumption is 28mW will, at the time it is producing, and if the consumption is 28 mW, be producing (0.8/28) x 100 = 2.86% of the power. When, as is expected, the whole scheme produces 3mW, then the calculation reveals (3/28) x 100 = 10.71% of the power. This is of course a lower percentage when compared to the maximum output of 42mW, which the Minister also pointed out at the Press Conference, but is nevertheless much more that has ever been produced before, and infinitely more than the GSD ever planned to produce (mathematically 0.8 divided by zero equals infinity).