The project proposal to adapt its wind farms was submitted the first week of July to the Ministry of Ecological Transition, Fight against Climate Change and Territorial Planning requesting administrative authorization to replace 29 wind turbines with 5 with the same total rated power.
When the Cabildo de Tenerfe founded ITER in 1990 its main objective was to promote the use of renewable energies in Tenerife and carry out research in this same field, financing itself by selling the energy generated in its own renewable energy plants. To this end, and for a decade, the Institute installed 3 wind farms with about 13MW of rated power, both owned and participated, on its premises in Granadilla de Abona.
The 29 wind turbines that make up these three wind farms are arranged in two rows, occupying a total of 633 meters and 900 meters respectively.
After surpassing the 20 years of useful life of these wind turbines (30 in some cases), ITER´s Wind Energy Department has started the procedure replace these 29 old turbines with 5 new ones seeking to solve the problems associated with obsolete technologies (difficulty in obtaining spare parts, structural problems and durability of materials, reduction in availability and efficiency, etc.). In this way, the penetration of wind energy corresponding to the entire installed capacity is guaranteed.
Part of the repowering project of the wind farms is carried out by Agrupación de Interés Económico Eólicas de Tenerife, equally owned by ITER and ENEL Green Power, who own one of the wind farms. The other two belong to the Institute. These three wind farms share configuration and are subject of the restrictions derived mainly from the limitation of the available land and the aeronautical easements of Tenerife South Airport. These shared characteristics have implied the joint adaptation of the three wind farms that will result in maximized efficiency of the location of future wind turbines, optimization of the available power and surface and application of large-scale environmental improvements that will favor the release of larger strips of land, currently occupied by the old wind turbines.
The decommissioning of the current 29 wind turbines together with the possible infrastructures that will enter in disuse has also been planned jointly for the three wind farms. The same procedure has been carried out for the restoration of the land occupied or affected by the works, with special attention to the second row, which borders the Montaña Pelada Natural Monument and whose space will be completely freed.
The project proposal foresees a single row of 5 wind turbines and a total length of 850 meters. The total power of the new facility will be 12 MW. Although the work will be carried out jointly by the two companies, due to ownership purposes two separate projects will be processed independently.
The Administrative Authorization and Environmental Impact Statement for the adaptation projects were requested to the Ministry of Ecological Transition, Fight against Climate Change and Territorial Planning the first week of July. The procedure which is expected to result in the implementation of the repowering project of the three wind farms is thus considered initiated.
