ACCIONA Energía announced today the repowering of the Tahivilla wind farm in Tarifa (Cádiz), which will go from 98 wind turbines to 13 Nordex turbines.

The old machines will begin to be dismantled this year, followed by the installation of the new turbines, with the start of operations planned for 2026.

The repowering of the old turbines with new state-of-the-art ones will increase power from 78.4MW to 84.4MW, while the export capacity of the plant will remain the same. The production of the Tahivilla wind farm after repowering will increase by 72%, going from the generation of clean electricity equivalent to the consumption of 42,000 Spanish homes, to producing enough to cover the energy needs of 73,000 homes.

The repowering of a wind farm consists of replacing the turbines of older wind farms with more modern, powerful and efficient models, optimising their operation and increasing their energy generation capacity.

The advantages of repowering a wind farm compared to building a new installation from scratch are numerous: repowered wind farms have greater social acceptance as they are located in places where residents are already accustomed to renewables and are aware of their benefits; there is a significantly lower environmental impact, as repowered wind farms use far less wind turbine generators and towers, and they reuse existing installations; development times are shorter and the need for new grid systems is reduced; and they tend to be in locations with the best wind resources. In addition, the costs and investment risks are lower.  

In 2030, there will be around 20GW of wind farms in Spain with more than 20 years in operation, which coincides with the average operational lifetime of a wind farm. Of these 20GW, around 7.4GW have the potential to be repowered, which would multiply the installed capacity between 1.5 and 3 times, and would allow to incorporate between 4GW and 15GW of additional renewable energy into the Spanish electricity system.