Wind Power Turbines Installed at Punta Galeta in Panama

The demand for the use of efficient wind power generation is growing in Panama, due largely to the push given by the depletion and rising cost of bunker, a derivative of crude oil and coal used by thermal plants, and protests against some of the hydro electric projects, something which has occurred in Panama and in other countries. For this reason, the country's first wind turbines were installed in the grounds of the Punta Galeta Marine Laboratory, a research station of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, located in the coastal area of ​​the province of Colon, near the Caribbean entrance of the Panama Canal.

Stanley Heckadon Moreno, director of the laboratory, explained that with the capture of wind energy they are reducing the electric bill at the research station, and they avoid damage by replacing other forms of energy that depend on more polluting conventional sources such as power plants. "When talking about wind power you are describing the process by which the wind is used to generate mechanical power or electricity," said Heckadon, who said four wind turbines were installed. Each turbine produces an estimated 5 kilowatts per hour with a peak capacity of 10 kilowatts per hour if they work at full capacity. That's the average amount consumed in a common house anywhere in Panama. A 60-watt bulb lit for one hour consumes 0.06 kilowatt hours of electricity. This energy will supply the facilities of Punta Galeta Marine Laboratory.

For his part, Gabriel Thomas, program coordinator of education of that station, said the turbines are a valuable educational tool to show the economic feasibility of harnessing wind as an energy resource to over 12,000 foreign and domestic visitors who go there every year. The objective of this innovation is to generate energy using the incessant Caribbean winds. In Punta Galeta there is sufficient winds to use this as a recourse. Wind energy is an abundant, renewable and clean. (Siglo)