Iberdrola España installs the first wind turbine of one of its most powerful wind farms in Castile and León

• The assembly of the 20 wind turbines that make up this renewable energy installation in Burgos - Buniel - has begun, with a unitary power of 5.2 MW, more than seven times higher than those installed more than twenty years ago.
• The blades are more than 70 metres long and the height of the wind turbine is twice that of Burgos Cathedral.
• This project was launched through a joint venture between Iberdrola España (75%) and Caja Rural de Soria (25%) with an investment of around €100 million.
• Its construction will have a significant local component - Up to 200 industrial suppliers from the area are expected to be involved in the project during peak work periods
• It will generate enough clean energy to supply the equivalent of 70,000 households per year and avoid the emission of 39,000 tonnes of CO2 per year into the atmosphere.

Iberdrola España has successfully installed the first wind turbine of the Buniel wind farm - 104 megawatts (MW) - which, located in the Burgos municipalities of Albillos, Arcos de la Llana, Buniel, Cavia, Cayuela, Villagonzalo Pedernales and Villalbilla de Burgos, will be one of the most powerful in Castile and León. Each machine has a unit power of 5.2 MW, more than seven times higher than the first wind turbines installed in our country more than two decades ago.

The assembly of the 20 wind turbines that make up this wind energy facility in Burgos, whose blades are more than 70 metres long and whose height is double that of Burgos Cathedral, has thus begun.

The size of these components is making their construction a complex process, with daily transports of up to 76 metres in length with different materials and 180-metre-high cranes for lifting components exceeding 155 tonnes in some cases.

This project, which was launched through a joint venture between Iberdrola España (75%) and Caja Rural de Soria (25%) with an investment of around €100 million, received an EIB loan of €55 million a few months ago.

The construction of this wind farm will have an important local component, as it employs civil works companies, such as the Burgos-based Copsa, labour, transporters, suppliers of raw materials (aggregates, concrete, steel, prefabricated products, etc.), cranes, auxiliary means, etc., as well as the promotion of industrial suppliers. "It is expected that up to 200 professionals will be involved in the project during peak periods," says Clara Fierro, the project manager.

"It will also have a regional vision; the nacelles have been assembled at the Siemens Gamesa plant in Agreda (Soria) and the wind turbine gearboxes have been manufactured in Lerma (Burgos). In addition, different regional and national suppliers have been in charge of producing different components, such as the wind turbine towers in Avilés and Linares," Fierro points out.

It will generate enough clean energy to supply the equivalent of 70,000 households per year and prevent the emission of 39,000 tonnes of CO2 per year into the atmosphere. 

The project includes the development of the necessary infrastructure to transform and feed the energy produced into the distribution grid. The electricity generated in this clean energy facility will be evacuated to the 400 kilovolt (kV) Buniel substation.

A new energy landscape that fixes population in rural areas

Iberdrola España promotes renewable energies as an engine for rural development and in this way the villages emerge as a guarantee for the future. This is the case of the villages in Castile and León that Iberdrola España is promoting and which will contribute to a sustainable recovery, allowing the creation of local employment.

The best initiatives for the coexistence of renewable energies, nature and people were recently recognised at the first edition of the Iberdrola CONVIVE Awards. The Burgos town council of Revilla Vallejera was one of those honoured by the company.

It has also begun construction of the Valdemoro wind farm. In the province of Burgos alone, it has recently built or is developing more than 550 megawatts between seven wind farms.

The company is also currently developing three photovoltaic facilities in the region totalling 450 MW - Villarino, Velilla and Virgen de Areños III - and two solar plants of 41 and 33 MW to hybridise the existing BaCa wind complex - Ballestas and Casetona - of 69 MW, which will be the first hybrid wind and solar plant in Spain, in Burgos. Also, in the province of Burgos, last year it started up its first photovoltaic plant in the region -Revilla-Vallejera (50 MW).

With these projects, Iberdrola España reinforces its commitment to Castile and León, which is consolidating its position as an important centre for renewable energy developments in the company's investment cycle to 2025, where it already operates more than 5,150 MW, making it the autonomous community with the most 'green' megawatts installed by the company.