RES has been appointed by Swiss energy company Alpiq to take charge of the repowering of the Gravieres wind farm in France.
To optimise the wind farm’s performance, Alpiq has decided to renew the entire site, but without changing the current location or number of turbines.
The six wind turbines at the site in Roussas, in Drome, will be replaced with newer, larger capacity machines with longer blades, to increase the capacity of Gravieres to 13.8MW.
The wind farm’s electricity production will increase 30% following repowering.
The turbines will be replaced in 2023 and 2024.
Gravieres was commissioned in 2006 and was one of the first wind farms developed and built by RES in France, before being bought by Alpiq.
Annual output will increase from 25,000 megawatt-hours to around 32,000MWh.
The repowering of Gravieres will extend its life by an additional 30 years.
RES repowering manager Christophe Soulier said: “The Multi-Annual Energy Plan in France is aiming to double installed wind power capacity by 2028.
“To achieve this ambitious target, it is necessary to add new capacity, but also to renew existing parks ambitiously, not only to avoid losing production capacity, but above all to increase their production significantly without adding new turbines.
“Gravieres is a concrete example of what RES offers to third parties to optimise their assets while actively participating in the energy transition.
“Four other repowering projects will be submitted to the authorities for third parties during the course of this year.”