The global technology company Gamesa has begun the process of loading three wind turbine blades, nacelle and tower on to a ship bound for the Canary Islands where the components will become part of the first Spanish offshore wind turbine.
The blades are manufactured at Aoiz and each of them have a span of 62.5 metres weighing 15 tonnes thus making them the largest turbine blades ever produced in Spain and among the largest manufactured in Europe. The nacelle is manufactured at a factory in Tauste, Zaragoza, and is 12.5 metres long, 4 metres tall and wide and weighs 72 tonnes. The tower is 90 metres high and was manufactured by Windar, a joint venture between Gamesa and Daniel Alonso.
The ship will dock at Arinaga Quay next week and Gamesa will then begin assembly of the prototype G128-5.0MW offshore turbine. It expects the turbine to begin operating in the third quarter of 2013 and will aim to secure the necessary certifications in the subsequent months. This will enable the company to install an initial series of the turbine in 2014. Gamesa also plans to develop higher capacity turbines of around 7MW to 8MW in the medium to long term.
The company obtained design certification for its turbine from the independent organisation DMV in 2012. This enabled the launch, commercial rollout and manufacture of the series in the coming years. The system has a rotor diameter of 128 metres and involved more than half a million engineering hours in its design process.
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