In Soria, northeastern Spain, RWE has put its 41 MW Rea Unificado onshore wind farm online.
The project will be able to supply the equivalent of 30,000 Spanish houses with electricity each year thanks to its nine Nordex turbines, each of which has a rotor diameter of 149 metres and a rated output of 4.53 MW.
It is the 17th onshore wind farm in Spain built by the German firm and the first to use “Soft-Spot foundations.”
The “Soft-Spot foundations” RWE employed at Rea Unificado are spread foundations made of reinforced concrete that are insulated by a coating of expanded polystyrene.
The expanded polystyrene redistributes the loads on a donut-shaped surface rather than transmitting them to the subsoil.
According to RWE, this improves stability while lowering the concrete volume and foundation slab diameter.
By optimising the use of concrete and steel, the project became more economical and environmentally friendly, it was claimed.
The German company now runs onshore wind farms in Spain with a combined capacity of more than 480MW, and is currently building its Orkoien onshore wind project.
Katja Wünschel, RWE’s chief executive officer for onshore wind and solar in Europe and Australia, said “Rea Unificado is the first RWE wind farm where we installed our wind turbines on innovative resource-saving ‘Soft-Spot foundations’.”
“They allow us to significantly reduce construction and material costs while increasing stability. This was quite a challenge. My special thanks go to the development and construction teams for making this innovation in Rea Unificado possible.”
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