Tenerife Wind Farm
The Institute of Technology for Renewable Energy (ITER) was set up by the Tenerife Government to research new technology with the aim of providing sustainable energy solutions and a cleaner environment.
The industrial park at Granadilla was the site chosen to develop a wind farm. In many ways this location is ideal, facing the strong offshore winds and slightly elevated to take advantage of increased wind velocity as the onshore wind stream becomes compressed as it passes across the rising terrain.
There is not much development in the area so the environmental impact was minimized. The rotors create power but they also generate noise.
Overall the wind farm generates an energy production of 36.764 MWh/annum. This generation avoids the consumption of 3.169.100 kg or 3169.1 tons of fuel, that would be needed to generate the same amount of energy with a conventional power plant. It avoids the emission of 29.411 tons of CO2, 198.5 tons of SO2, 73.5 tons of NOx and 4.4 tons of CO per year as well. The wind farm contributes significantly to the renewable energy production of the island.
The wind farm can be seen heading north on the TF1 motorway, some of the turbine columns tower 40 metres above the terrain which is the height of a 15 story building. The tri-bladed rotors are also up to 40 metres in diameter. There are three different installations all in the same area.
An experimental wind farm was first constructed with the aim of testing the performance of different wind turbines, regarding their origin, manufacture and technology. This wind farm has a potential output of 2.83 mega Watts with 9 machines ranging between 150 and 500 kilo watts.
The wind farm was extended during 1996 with an additional capacity of 4.8 mega watts. Initially there were 16 number 300 kilo Watt turbines but in 1999 there were modified to 8 number 600 kilo Watt machines. The reason given was that the acoustic impact was too great; also the front row of turbines was reducing the output of the rear turbines.
The last installation was constructed during 1998, with an additional capacity of 5.5 mega Watts; it consists of 11 turbines each with an output of 500 kilo Watts.
There are further plans to upgrade the experimental wind farm with the provision of new high output turbines.
Setting aside environmental impact issues, Tenerife has tremendous scope to increase sustainable electricity production using wind farms.
Technical information supplied courtesy of the Institiute of Technology for Renewable Technology (ITER).
Read also about Photovoltaic Electricity Generation in Tenerife, another sustainable energy solution at work.
Blog posted by Expedia Property SL – Tenerife Estate Agents for Tenerife Property
April 15, 2009 at 9:19 AM |
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