- The Aldeavieja plant in Ávila produces more energy with fewer wind turbines and has become the first European facility to reuse dismantled installations to build new infrastructure.
Endesa, through its renewable energy subsidiary, Enel Green Power España, has connected its largest repowered wind plant in Aldeavieja, between the Ávila municipalities of Santa María del Cubillo and Ojos Albos. The facility has gone from 22 wind turbines to just 4, with a greater capacity for renewable production and applying the latest innovation in circular economy, giving a second life to all removed materials.
'For us, this repowering is a major milestone,' said Rafael González, Endesa's Director of Generation, who highlighted 'not only the fact of producing more with less, reducing the visual impact, but above all because the dismantling has generated zero waste thanks to the recovery of all components, making Aldeavieja the first wind farm in Europe to use structural concrete made with recycled fibres from retired wind turbine blades.'
Indeed, the recycling of wind turbine blades that have reached the end of their useful life has always been a challenge for the sector. For this reason, Endesa joined, along with 14 other partners, the European project Blades2Build, whose objective has been to offer real and scalable solutions for a challenge that until now had no viable circular answer.
Endesa, alongside technical experts led by Holcim Innovation Center (Lyon) and the Special Concretes Laboratory of Holcim Spain in Alcobendas (Madrid), created a pioneering formulation incorporating recycled fibres from wind blades as a partial substitute for natural aggregates. This innovation opens a new path for the sustainable repowering of the European wind fleet and places Spain at the forefront of the circular economy in renewable energies, integrating R&D, industry, and circularity, giving new life to a waste product.
How the dismantling was carried out
More than 50 people worked on the dismantling of the 22 wind turbines that were part of this wind farm, using special cranes. The 22 retired wind turbines were 45 metres high and had a total installed capacity of 14.52 MW. After their element-by-element removal 'with special care, as these were elements that were going to have a second life', explain sources from Invenergy Services, the Galician-origin company that carried out the work, the challenge began of adapting roads so that the new components could reach their destination.
Transporting, to an altitude of 1,500 metres, each of the components of the 4 new wind turbines, which are 119 metres high with 73-metre-long blades, has required the use of specialised trucks, road widening, route changes, and heavy-tonnage cranes to assemble each piece of the new wind turbines that multiply the power of the previous ones almost tenfold: 24 MW of total installed capacity and 65 GWh/year of renewable wind generation
Generation that encourages public participation, as a portion of it will be allocated to formalising renewable electricity supply contracts with local SMEs.
This repowering has involved an investment of €34 million, part of which has been covered by aid programmes for investment in wind farm repowering, technological and environmental renovation of mini-hydroelectric plants up to 10 MW, and innovative wind turbine blade recycling facilities ('Circular Repowering Programmes') of the 'Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan – Financed by the European Union–NextGenerationEU,' making it the first project within this programme to be connected.
Specifically, the work has received a grant of €6.5 million, awarded by the Institute for the Diversification and Saving of Energy (IDAE).
About Endesa
Endesa is the leading electricity company in Spain and the second largest in Portugal. It is also the second largest gas operator in the Spanish market. Endesa operates an integrated business model spanning electricity generation, distribution, and supply. Furthermore, the company offers value-added services focused on the electrification of energy use for households, businesses, and public administrations. Endesa is committed to the United Nations’ SDGs and corporate social responsibility. In the latter area, it also operates through the Endesa Foundation. Our team comprises around 9,000 employees. Endesa is part of Enel, a multinational electricity company and an integrated leading player in global energy and renewables markets [1].
[1] Enel's leadership in the various categories is defined by comparison with the financial data of its counterparts in the year 2024. Reference perimeter: publicly traded companies without majority state ownership.
