Enel Green Power España (EGPE), Endesa’s renewable energy subsidiary, has connected the 20-megawatt (MW) Expansion Los LLanos wind farm to the network, which has developed the Cogollos and Hontoria de la municipal terms Cantera, in the province of Burgos, has involved an investment of 23 million euros.
José Bogas, CEO of Endesa, said that “Endesa is already finalizing the connection to the network of the 879 renewable MW awarded in the 2017 auction, which demonstrates the company’s commitment to fulfill the commitments acquired in the Tenders This is another step in Endesa’s commitment to the production of clean energy, one of the pillars of the national energy transition policy ”.
EGPE was awarded 540 MW of wind power and 339 MW of solar energy at government auctions held in May 2017, with a total investment of more than 800 million euros. At this time, the company has already connected more than 500 MW to the network and has completed the construction and connection of the remaining wind projects, which will be ready by the end of the year.
The wind turbines park, which will be connected by the existing EGPE substation in Cogollos, will be equipped with ten wind turbines of two megawatts of unit power, which, together, will prevent the annual emission of around 51,500 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.
In the construction, in which 60 people have worked, the “Sustainable Construction Site” model of Enel Green Power has been applied, including the installation of photovoltaic solar panels to cover part of the energy needs during the work. In addition, water saving measures have been adopted through the installation of deposits and rain collection systems; Once the work is finished, both the photovoltaic panels and the water saving equipment are donated to the municipality for public use. This work has also been novel by the use of various innovative tools and techniques. In this regard, the company has tested the use of a prefabricated foundation for one of the ten wind towers, thus saving construction time and reducing the environmental impact of the work.
The construction of this renewable capacity responds to Endesa’s strategy of decarbonising its generation mix in 2050, a process for which, according to the latest Strategic Plan (2020-2022), the milestone of reaching 10.2 GW of capacity has been marked renewable installed in 2022, compared to the estimated 7.4 GW by the end of 2019, with a total investment of about 3.8 billion euros.
Endesa follows a facility development model that incorporates actions to create social value for the environments in which it is built, the so-called CSV (Creating Shared Value) model. Specifically, the CSV actions of the project have prioritized the incorporation of local labor, as well as hiring in the area of ??catering services and accommodation for workers.
Endesa currently manages more than 7,077.8 MW of renewable capacity in Spain. Of this figure, 4,710 MW are of conventional hydraulic generation. The rest, more than 2,367.8 MW, are managed through EGPE and come from wind (1,937.8 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 46 GW in a generation combination that includes wind, solar, geothermal and hydroelectric, and is at the forefront of the integration of innovative technologies in power plants renewable energy.
