The Spanish renewable energy sector has witnessed a new engineering milestone. EDP Renewables, a global leader in the renewable energy sector and one of the world’s largest wind energy producers, has received the commissioning certificate for the wind farm Quintanilla II in Burgos, and proceeded to commission the wind farm boasting the largest wind turbines in Spain.
Quintanilla II will feature GE137 turbines, with 3.33 MW power output, a rotor diameter of 137 metres and a total turbine height of 199.9 metres to the tip of the blade. For the purposes of comparison, the turbines will be 44 metres taller than Madrid’s Torre Picasso, and will be the fifth tallest construction in the whole of Spain, after the four ChamartÃn towers in Madrid.
With capacity totalling almost 10MW, the Quintanilla II wind farm will be able to generate enough clean energy to power 10,000 homes.
From an engineering perspective, the development of this wind farm is a major milestone, not only in terms of the transportation of its colossal structures, but also of the challenges inherent to a project of this nature. The construction of the foundation of each turbine alone requires 54 tonnes of iron and more than 50 trucks pouring concrete non-stop for several hours, with transition times of no more than 10 minutes between loads.
RocÃo Sicre, Managing Director of EDPR in Spain, said: ‘This project is a huge milestone, not only thanks to its remarkable scale, but also to the achievements made and the challenges overcome during its development. Thanks to this project, EDP Renewables has cemented its position as a leader in technology development in the Spanish renewable energy sector.’
The company has now achieved numerous breakthroughs in both on and offshore wind farm development. For example, it was a developer of continental Europe’s first floating wind farm, WindFloat Atlantic, which boasts the world’s largest wind turbine installed on a floating structure, and it also pioneered the use of towing helicopters in Spain for the installation and subsequent repowering of the Carondio wind farm in Asturias. The company also undertakes a range of projects to enhance energy storage technology and optimise hybrid power plants; the first prototype of a wind-solar hybrid facility in Spain was also built by EDPR.
