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Wind farm auction to support repowering first in Africa
5/10/2022
News
Some 73 wind turbines are being auctioned as part of the Koudia Al Baida wind farm repowering project in northern Morocco, the first such project to take place in Africa.
Located in Tangier-Tetouan-Al (Hoceïma), Koudia Al Baida has been operating since 2000, with a capacity of 50.4 MW produced by 84 wind turbines. The Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (Masen) plans to expand the wind farm’s capacity to 100 MW via a repowering project that involves dismantling the existing turbines and replacing them with a new generation of more efficient units.
The Vestas V42 wind turbines, manufactured between 1999 and 2000 and each with an output of 600 kW, are being auctioned through a series of sales via the Surus Group’s specialised Escrapalia online platform. The first auction, which closed at the end of September, featured 10 complete wind turbines that could be purchased as a single unit, as individual lots or as a joint lot of all 10 units at a starting price of €150. The remaining auctions will be held until 5 March 2023, taking place throughout the dismantling process.
The repowering project was awarded by Masen to Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, which in turn has contracted Spanish company Surus to handle the auction sale and the associated dismantling programme while minimising the visual and environmental footprint of the process.
Surus already has experience in this field, working on a number of repowering wind projects in Spain, including Zas and Corme (La Coruña), where 141 wind turbines were replaced by 17 units maintaining the same power output (42.3 MW), and at Malpica (La Coruña), where 69 turbines generating 15.07 MW were replaced by seven new ones that produce 16.45 MW. This represents 65% of the total MW repowering carried out in Spain, according to the company.
Work on the Koudia Al Baida project will focus on circular economy principles, seeking to extend the life cycle of equipment and reduce waste by reusing assets and recycling.
Blade recycling is one of the biggest complications to address in terms of sustainability when repowering a wind farm, as fibreglass management is very complex, explains Surus. In this particular project, the surplus blades are to be recycled. They will be shredded and the material used for the manufacture of cement. In this way, 241 tonnes of waste that would be generated by the blades alone will be avoided, says the company.
In addition to managing the sale of the wind turbines, a second life will also be sought for the wind farm’s transformer substations.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is helping to finance the Koudia Al Baida repowering project and reports that the renewable energy generated by the new farm will lead to CO2 emission reductions in the region of 300,000 t/y.
