ACCIONA Windpower (AWP), the ACCIONA Group subsidiary dedicated to the design, manufacture, and commercialization of wind turbines, has hit a new milestone in the wind industry. The company has installed more than 1,000 MW (1 GW) of wind-power capacity using concrete-tower technology.
ACCIONA Windpower’s unique concrete-tower technology enables higher hub heights for better energy production, and lower transportation and maintenance costs. Concrete towers also increase the local content and economic impact of a wind-power project.
Wind turbines mounted on concrete towers are particularly suitable for sites where greater tower height leads to higher energy production.
AWP’s experience in concrete towers dates back 10 years when the first concrete tower was installed with the AW1500 platform. Since then, AWP has continued to refine and optimize the product and especially the manufacturing process through the development of “mobile factories.”
Wind turbines mounted on concrete towers are particularly suitable for sites where greater tower height leads to higher energy production from the machines. ACCIONA Windpower’s 3-MW platform includes models with hub heights of 100, 120, and 137.5 meters for wind turbines with rotor diameters of 100, 116, 125, and 132 meters. AWS’s 1.5-MW platform utilizes 100-meter towers for rotor diameters of 77 and 82 meters.
To date, AWP has installed a total of 1,045.5 MW of wind capacity using concrete towers — 924 MW (88%) with 3-MW turbines and the rest with 1.5-MW machines.
By countries, that capacity is shared between Brazil (411 MW), Mexico (225 MW), South Africa (138 MW), Spain (84 MW), Poland (63 MW) and the U.S. (3 MW) all with AW3000 wind turbines, whereas the company has also installed 121.5 MW with the AW1500 platform.
The company has completed additional orders for more than 800 MW of concrete-tower-mounted wind turbines worldwide, which will be installed between 2016 and 2018.
ACCIONA Windpower
www.acciona.com
Filed Under: News, Towers
