Tico Wind Farm, with a capacity of 180 MW, is located in Villar de los Navarros, Aragón, and has received an investment of 181 million euros.
Endesa, through its renewable energy division Enel Green Power Spain, has connected the 180 MW Tico Wind wind farm to the grid, becoming its largest wind farm in Spain. The facility located in the town of Villar de los Navarros, province of Zaragoza, has involved an investment of 181 million euros.
The project, whose construction began in May 2021, has had training courses in panel assembly and maintenance and operation of solar plants as part of a plan to create shared value in the local communities where the company operates. In Spain, Endesa has trained more than 2,100 people in the renewable sector, which is giving them access to a booming labor market. In this sense,
Endesa prioritizes the hiring of local labor in the construction of renewable energy facilities. Precisely during the construction of TICO WIND, the employment peak reached 330 workers distributed between own workers and employees of the contracting companies for the project. Of those who worked on the construction of the facility, 30% were from Villar de los Navarros and surroundings. Rafael González, General Director of Enel Green Power Spain, stated that “with this project we reaffirm our commitment to continue strengthening the mix of renewable generation in our country, helping to pursue its objectives in terms of green energy. Likewise, we are taking advantage of the wealth of renewable sources in Spain, while actively promoting innovation and sustainability through the adoption of international best practices during the construction phase.”
The new plant will generate around 471 GWh per year, which from a sustainability point of view has the potential to avoid the equivalent of around 192,200 tons of CO2 per year. At the same time, the plant’s output has the potential to avoid the purchase of up to 88 million cubic meters of gas from foreign sources per year, replaced by domestically produced renewable energy.
Precisely part of this energy will go to the medical company Novartis, with whom Endesa’s renewable subsidiary, Enel Green Power Spain, signed a 10-year pan-European Virtual Power Purchase Agreement (VPPA) in 2020 for the supply of some 78, 5 MW of electricity from its start-up. The project will help avoid 96,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, helping to address part of Novartis’ carbon footprint across its European operations.
“At Novartis, environmental sustainability is aligned with our purpose of reinventing medicine to improve and extend people’s lives. The commissioning of TICO WIND marks an important milestone in our sustainability journey to be carbon neutral across all of our operations by 2025 and achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2040,” said James Goudreau, External Engagement Director for Sustainability. Novartis environmental “Energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions are the pillars of our strategy to reduce emissions, and we are pleased to have partners like Enel Green Power on our side.” A wind farm that has been built by applying the most innovative technology, such as drones for topographic surveys, intelligent tracking of turbine components, advanced digital platforms and software solutions to remotely monitor and support activities. The construction of this project has been based on the Enel Green Power “Sustainable Construction Site” model, which includes a series of measures to improve safety and environmental aspects, reducing emissions, water consumption and favoring energy efficiency. Some of the most important measures have been the installation of a photovoltaic solar panel kit to cover part of the energy needs of the work camp, emergency defibrillators, the use of low-consumption LED lights and the use of a water collection system tank. of rain in storage tanks. All these elements will be donated to the town of Villar de los Navarros. Under the umbrella of the CSV, training has been promoted as a driver of local employment and measures favoring recycling have been contemplated, taking into account aspects of waste recovery, circular economy and innovation measures such as the use of machinery with GPS and people detection. In the last three years Enel Green Power Spain has connected 19 wind farms to the grid in Aragon, located in the provinces of Teruel and Zaragoza, with a combined total power of 685 MW and an investment of 680 million euros.
