Spanish utility Iberdrola has opted to order 4.5MW turbines – the most powerful it has ever used on an onshore project – for its Herrera complex in the European country’s northerly Burgos province.
The Siemens Gamesa SG4.5-145 machines chosen for La Huesa, Valdesantos and Orbaneja wind farms, which together will have a total capacity of 63MW, have a nameplate almost seven times higher than the turbines the developer installed on projects in its home market more than two decades ago.
The 14 Herrera complex units were compared by Iberdrola to 32 machines, rated at 660kW each, erected in 1996 for its first onshore wind farm in Spain.
Orbaneja will be the largest of the three Herrera complex projects ,using seven turbines with a total capacity of 31.5MW, while 18MW La Huesa will be equipped with four, and 13.5MW Valdesantos three machines.
With projects such as the Herrera complex, Iberdrola said it was progressing with its renewables investment plan in Spain where the company plans to install 3GW of new wind and solar by 2022, and up to 10GW by 2030.
Iberdrola currently has more than 4GW of wind and solar projects under construction or in the pipeline in regions such as Extremadura, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y Leon, Navarra, Aragon, Murcia, Cantabria and Andalusia.
The utility has a total of 16GW of renewables installed in Spain, out of which around 5.8GW is wind power, and a total of 30.3GW of renewables capacity installed worldwide.
The Herrera complex order follows hot on the heels of last week’s agreement by the Siemens Gamesa’s parent, Siemens AG, to buy Iberdrola’s 8.1% stake in the turbine OEM for €1.1bn ($1.21bn).
Spain wants to retake its place as a European renewables powerhouse by more than doubling its wind power capacity to 50GW by 2030, and to kick-start a sevenfold increase in solar to 37GW.
Madrid also plans to increase pumped-storage capacity in Spain from 3GW to 8GW, and to grow concentrating solar power from 2.3GW to 7GW by 2030. Nuclear would fall to 3GW by 2030 and coal to zero, while gas-fired capacity would remain unchanged at 27GW.
