HOW A WIND FARM IS BORN: CELADA FUSION

The birth of a human being is the happy result of nine months of gestation and lots more of shared illusions, expectations and decisions. The supportive and enthusiastic collaboration of many family and friends is the best guarantee that everything will turn out fine. Something similar happens with a wind farm, only over a much longer period.

In 2022, we commissioned the Celada Fusion wind farm in the region of Valles del Cerrato in Palencia (Spain).

This was also the product of many years of study, procedures, discussions, reports and calculations to which was added 15 months of works until the newborn emerged, destined to help us move the world without damaging the planet. We have prepared the following picture gallery and video to record the most significant milestones during this journey, similar to that of many others we strive to create every day.

Join the tour and discover step by step how a wind farm is built.

WHERE THE WIND LIVES

The creation of a wind farm is conditioned by the existence of wind with sufficient intensity and frequency. For this, it is essential to have a large volume of prior data, measured over years, to be able to predict how much, when and in which direction it will blow over a certain location.

PROJECT ENGINEERING

Based on an exhaustive prior knowledge of the wind resources and the rest of the physical and technical conditions of a site (access, connection to the electricity grid, geotechnics, etc.) the engineering project is drawn up describing in detail the features of the future facility.

SELECTING THE WIND TURBINES

The wind turbine generators represent 70% of the investment in a wind farm. It is vital to select the best model for the conditions at each location. The close collaboration between ACCIONA Energía and Nordex, our preferred supplier, allows the design to be adapted and the performance optimized for each facility.

THE NACELLE, THE TURBINE HEART

The nacelle houses the main components of the wind turbine generator, such as the power train, responsible for transmitting the energy produced by the turning blades to the generator which converts it into electricity. The model at Celada Fusion is a Nordex N149/4.8, the numbers referring to a 149-meter-diameter rotor with an output of 4.8 MW.

IMPORTANCE OF THE MATERIALS

The blades capture the wind energy for the turbine generator. They are manufactured with glass or carbon fiber, impregnated with epoxy resin, materials which confer them with the ideal relationship between weight and flexibility in order to optimize their function. The N149/4.8 turbine blades each measure 72,9 meters in length.

BLADE MANUFACTURE, A SMITH’S TRADE

The production of a wind turbine blade has a highly artisanal part to it. The glass fiber fabrics are stretched manually one by one over the molds with the care taken by a master smith.

And it will continue to produce energy for another 40 or 50 years! Every year this will avoid the emission of 60,000 tonnes of CO2 to the atmosphere, while the facility will supply clean electricity equivalent to demand from 27,000 homes. As a measure of the circular economy, ash from our biomass plant in Briviesca (Burgos, Spain) was used in the construction of the access roads to Celada Fusion.

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