Siemens Gamesa has won one of its largest contracts in terms of capacity in Spain as the country is at the start of a massive wind power boom with the goal to more than double the use of renewables in a decade.

The OEM will deliver 150MW of its SG 5.0-145 model to Elawan Energy for three wind farms in the province of Albacete in central Spain that are scheduled to be commissioned in mid-2022.

"The agreement reached with Elawan to build one of our largest wind farm clusters in Spain reflects our contribution and commitment to the growth of the wind energy sector in the country, where we are market leaders, with 53% of market share,” said Lars Bondo Krogsgaard, chief executive of Siemens Gamesa's Onshore unit.

“This large project will also bolster activity at our various plants in Spain and for our Spanish suppliers.”

The company only recently had to announce plans for the closure of two factories in Spain and lay off 266 workers amid a shift towards larger turbine models and an attempt to get its onshore business back on track financially.

Spain is the historic home of turbine manufacturer Gamesa, which was merged with Siemens Wind, so job cuts in its home market also always have a political dimension.

Doubling renewables in Spain

Siemens Gamesa stressed that the order from Elawan will strengthen its position in the central Spanish region of Castilla La Manche, where it currently has 2.3GW in installed capacity – out of 15GW across the whole country, where it is market leader.

Spain according to WindEurope last year added 1.4GW in new wind power, and now has 27GW of cumulative capacity, the second-largest in Europe behind Germany.

The Spanish government targets to allocate 20GW in new renewables capacity by 2025 – half of which in wind – to double the final use of energy from renewables to 42% (from 20% in 2020).

The steady new additions are slated to help Siemens Gamesa and its suppliers in Spain – as the order from Elawan already does.

The 30 nacelles for the project will be assembled at Siemens Gamesa's plant in Ágreda (Soria), the gearboxes will be produced at the plants in Asteasu (Guipúzcoa), Lerma (Burgos) and the city of Burgos, and the electrical components will be produced at the factories in Reinosa (Cantabria), San Fernando de Henares (Madrid) and Benisanó (Valencia).

The manufacturer currently has nine plants in Spain employing 1,200 people, and 4,500 employees in total in the country.

Wind

Siemens Gamesa wins large order on eve of massive Spanish wind power boom