RWE has commissioned its repowered Muel wind farm in Aragon after replacing 27 older machines with three new turbines totalling 19MW.
The company said the eight-month project dismantled 16.2MW of Nordtank units and installed Nordex N163/6.X turbines, increasing the number of Spanish homes supplied from 9,400 to 21,000 using the same grid connection.
It added that 99.82% of materials from the original wind farm were recovered or recycled, securing a ZeroWaste certificate from Bureau Veritas, while a power purchase agreement has been signed with an undisclosed offtaker.
RWE said dismantling was carried out by RenerCycle, with 1350 components set for reuse across its wind fleet, 1825 tonnes of ferrous material recovered and all 81 blades recycled to extract materials such as fibreglass and resins.
Chief executive for RWE Renewables Europe & Australia Katja Wünschel said: “This is repowering at its best! From 27 to three turbines in just eight months, while more than doubling the number of homes supplied.”
She added: “Muel has perfectly demonstrated that repowering gives wind farms a valuable second life with close to zero waste. Many of the old components will be reused in our wind fleet and even the blades will be recycled and repurposed.”
Wünschel said: “Special thanks go to the RWE team, the relevant authorities, and our partners BBA1, GES, Nordex and RenerCycle.”
RWE stated that the project receives support from the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility via the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
Around 10GW of Spanish onshore wind will reach 25 years of operation, representing significant repowering potential, the company added.
RWE Renewables Iberia operates 18 onshore wind farms totalling about 500MW and seven solar plants of around 300MWac on the Iberian Peninsula.