What is the main objectives of AWEP?

Main Objective:

To install an integrated cost effective, sustainable and reliable clean energy system, with very low environmental costs, and to create public awareness as to the enormous opportunities offered by the green energy technologies.

Specific Objectives:

• To decrease the hospital’s power consumption costs by approximately 30-40 % per year and to mitigate the risk of unpredictable increases in fuel and power prices.

• To minimize the risk of damage to sensitive and costly equipment as a result of repeated power interruptions (i.e. increased reliability).

• To reduce the environmental costs, such as carbon emissions, in the power generation process using fossil fuels.

• To provide the hospital with an alternative source of power that will be integrated with the existing grid and fossil fuel power systems.

• Increasing the awareness of the local community including power distribution companies, large industries, health care centres, in the usage and utilization of green and sustainable energy.

• Building the capacity of the hospital’s staff and its associates that participate in the project in the field of wind energy management and technicalities.

How to participate the project awareness activities and Workshops

To take part in workshops and activities related to the project can be done in one of two directions:

1) As a participants and beneficiaries: can be obtained through participating in the five workshops relating to the project, which will be announced in local newspapers and media in advance .All you need to do is just call and declaration of desire to participate in the workshop, informing that the first workshop was held in the city of Hebron early in the year 2009. 
2) as a provider of information available: If the person has the knowledge and experience that the project can benefit from, He or She can contact the management of this project to fix a location within the workshops and the programs of action

How long is  the project period?

36 month.

What are the main types of wind turbines?

-Vertical Turbines.

- Horizontal Turbines

- Gearless  Turbines

- Gear Box Turbines

What is the maximum wind turbine capacity and power generation in the market?

Wind turbines have grown rapidly in size over the last twenty years (link to EWEA webpage??). Today, most major manufacturers are selling or developing wind turbines with a rated power of around 3 MW. Such turbines typically have a diameter of 100 metres (a blade length of 50 m) and a tower height of between 80 and 100 metres.  A few years ago, the largest WTs on the market were around 1.5 MW with a diameter of 70m.  To give a sense of scale, a Boing 747 ‘jumbojet’ has a wingspan of less than 70m.

These megawatt turbines are designed to be connected to large (national) grid systems. This market overwhelmingly dominates the whole wind scene and there is a very limited market for smaller turbines and correspondingly few manufacturers interested in these ‘niche’ markets. Manufacturers generally stop the production lines for their smallest turbines when introducing larger ones. For example, a company that sold 750 kW and 1.5 MW machines five years ago will now only be selling 1.5 MW and 3 MW turbines. Within Europe, the focus today is on placing WTs offshore in shallow water due to problems in getting planning permission for onshore installation. This is seen as driving the demand for ever-larger WTs, and there is every likelihood that a range of 5MW designs will be commercially available in a few years.

Why the project is established in Al-Ahli hospital?

Because Al-Ahli Hospital is a medical centre in downtown Hebron, is the largest hospital (~ 500 beds) in Palestine, serving more than 100,000 patients per year, and suffers from the repeated electricity intermittencies during recent years. Two standby generators keep the hospital functioning during emergency situations when there is no grid supply. However these two generators only deliver 50-60% of the required power and, due to technical and cost factors, they cannot operate for more than 15-20 hours per day. It should also be noted that the hospital contains many sensitive items of equipment that cannot tolerate any power outages especially when serving critically ill patients (the hospital typically carries out 25 major operations per day).  The supply from the municipal electricity provider is on average interrupted five times a month (with outages ranging from a few hours to a whole day). The situation is worse in winter and, in the next few years, the average number of power interruptions is expected to double due to increased power demand and power network weaknesses. These interruptions are due to technical reasons and are not related to the political situation. However, if the political situation continues to develop as has been recently seen in Gaza then the number of politically-motivated outages will increase with serious humanitarian consequences.

Hebron is about 850 metres above sea level and this mountain city can be considered as having a good wind resource. Initial studies shows that the wind regime is suitable for operating wind for wind power generation. Al-Ahli hospital is located in the south-western part of Hebron at ~1000m above sea level. The average wind speed at 10 m could be as high as 10m/s in this region according to data supplied by the Weather Authority. This would amount to a rich resource of wind energy with great development potential. A more detailed evaluation of the wind energy resource in the area using data-modelling would enhance site selection.