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- The plant involved an investment of 9.3 million euros and is the first of Endesa's renewable energy subsidiaries that has come into service in Galicia.
- The development of this plant is part of Endesa's strategy to decarbonise its generation mix, a process whose first milestone will be to achieve 8.4 GW of installed renewable capacity by 2021, with an overall investment of some 2,000 million euros.
Enel Green Power España (EGPE), Endesa’s renewable energy subsidiary, has connected up the Refurbished Pena Ventosa wind farm with its 8 megawatts (MW) to the network, which has meant an investment of 9.3 million euros. It is the first to go into production of the three that the company is finishing off in Galicia.
José Bogas, Endesa's CEO, said that “Endesa has already put into operation around 300 MW of the 879 MW awarded in tenders, and the connection to the network of the rest of the wind farms will be finished off by the end of the year, which demonstrates the company's efforts to fulfilling the commitments acquired in tenders. This represents progress in Endesa's commitment to clean energy production, a crucial pillar of the national energy transition policy”.
EGPE was awarded 540 MW of wind power and 339 MW of solar energy at the government auctions held in May 2017, with a total investment of more than 800 million euros. The company has now connected some 400 MW (339 solar and 60 wind) to the grid and is finalising the construction and connection of the remaining 480 MW of wind generation facilities, which will be complete by the end of this year.
EGPE is simultaneously working on three wind farms in Galicia, all of which are in the province of Lugo. East of Pena Ventosa, which boasts 8 MW, is Paradela with 12 megawatts of installed power, and Serra das Penas with 42 MW. The total investment exceeds 72 million euros. The wind farm that has come into operation is equipped with four wind turbines, each with 2 MW of power and with a three-metre rotor which has a diameter of 90 metres, on a 78-metre-high tower. The power production of the refurbished wind farm at Pena Ventosa will prevent some 16,500 tons of CO2 being emitted into the atmosphere each year.
During the construction work, which involved 48 people, the "Sustainable Construction Site" model of Enel Green Power was applied. This includes the installation of photovoltaic solar panels to cover part of the energy needs during the work. In addition, water saving measures were adopted by installing deposits and rain collection systems. Once the work is finished, both the photovoltaic panels and the water saving equipment will be donated to the municipality for public use. This work has also been quite a novelty due to its use of prefabricated elements for the construction of the footings on which the wind turbines are grounded.
This renewable capacity is in line with Endesa's strategy of decarbonising its generation mix. The first milestone will be to reach 8.4 GW of renewable installed capacity by 2021, compared to the current 6.5 GW, with a total investment of about 2,000 million euros.
Endesa follows a facility development model that encompasses actions to create social value for the environments in which they are built, the so-called Creating Shared Value (CSV) model. Specifically, the project’s CSV actions have prioritised the incorporation of local labour, as well as locally hiring catering services and workers' accommodation.
Endesa currently manages more than 6,948 MW of renewable capacity in Spain. Of this figure, 4,710 MW are from conventional hydraulic generation. The rest, more than 2,229.8 MW, are managed through EGPE and come from wind (1,808 MW), solar (337 MW), mini-hydro (79 MW) and other renewable energy sources (14 MW).
Enel Green Power, the global renewable energy business line of the Enel Group, to which Endesa belongs, is dedicated to the development and operation of renewables worldwide, with a presence in Europe, America, Asia, Africa and Oceania. Enel Green Power is a global leader in the green energy sector with a managed capacity of about 43 GW in a generation combination that includes wind, solar, geothermal and hydroelectric energy, and is at the forefront of the integration of innovative technologies in renewable energy power plants.