EDP Renewables and Vestas have developed a wind/solar hybrid demonstration project at the Janda 3 wind farm at Cadiz in Spain.
The demo comprises an existing Vestas V112-3.0MW turbine with 372kW of new solar photovoltaic capacity added.
EDPR and Vestas said that the power from the PV plant is fed to the turbine as direct current, which is then converted and transformed by the turbine’s ad-hoc modified power conversion system in order to export electricity to the grid.
“By combining wind and PV, the demonstrator offers increased capacity factor and annual energy production,” they said.
Vestas has upgraded the technical specifications of the turbine’s controllers, converters and design, and installed new hardware for the demo.
Vestas senior vice president, innovation and concepts Bo Svoldgaard said: “The learnings will accelerate the execution on our strategy of integrating and combining renewable power as the market looks to absorb more renewable energy in the future.”
EDPR technical director Bautista Rodriguez said: “The development and running of this demonstrator is an interesting opportunity to test some of our hypotheses on the hybrid power plants of the future.
“Furthermore, it gives us an opportunity to explore wind and solar technology synergies in close collaboration with Vestas.”
Image: Vestas
EDPR, Vestas pilot PV/wind hybrid
By EBS