Repowering. That is a term that we are going to hear more than once or twice in the short term when we talk about renewable energy. The production of clean energy is key to achieving decarbonization objectives, but it is also evident that we cannot continue to gain ground from the land and sea to install solar or wind farms.

With the arrival of new generation equipment, what makes the most sense is to replace outdated elements with new units, and it is a operation which has just kicked off two wind farms in Albacete. And the data is most curious: they will go from 139 wind turbines to only 22, but they will be much more powerful.

The keys. As with any technology, wind farms have a limited useful life. The components break down, but over the years, much more interesting options also appear on the market. When equipment reaches the end of its cycle, there are three options: extend its useful life through maintenance tasks that do not improve performance, dismantle it or repower it.

Iberdrola on its website details the keys by which a wind farm is repowered:

• Obsolescence of turbines that limits energy production.
• Growing demand for renewable energy.
• Improvement of technology that makes old equipment obsolete.
• Changes in government regulations.

The case of Albacete. As we can see in the image above, a turbine from almost 25 years ago is not the same as a much more current one and, precisely, that is where the Isabela and Molar de Molinar wind farms, in Albacete, come into play. They already have two decades behind them and are the first chosen for this Iberdrola repowering process.

Disassembling wind turbines. The data is overwhelming: 139 wind turbines are going to be dismantled and only 22 will be installed. That is 117 fewer units, which will contribute to a less visual pollution, fewer dangerous elements for wildlife and 800 tons of waste that the group itself will manage.

Increasing production. However, although there are so few wind turbines left, the unit power of the new units will multiply by six that of the first wind turbines installed in Spain. This means that these 22 wind turbines will be capable of producing more than 30% more energy than the 139 that currently existed.

Local impulse. Another notable point about these new wind turbines is that companies from A Coruña, Albacete and Daimiel will be involved in both the production of the different elements and the storage, and the Mayor of the Peñas de San Pedro region, Antonio Serrano, has already highlighted which will be a boost for the area.

It is estimated that the process will take between one and two years, during which time jobs will be created, whoever comes will have to buy in local stores, and both hotels and restaurants will be filled.

Key in the solar. This repowering is not only essential in wind energy equipment. In the world of solar panels we see that every so often alternatives appear that increase the efficiency of solar cells. Also improvements in resistance and new cleaning applications for farms.

Images | Iberdrola, Peter Haas

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