Spain faces the end of the useful life of wind farms

Because Spain, during the old PSOE government with José Luís Zapatero, had a boom in renewable energies, it is now one of the first countries in the world to face the end of the useful life of wind farms.

Wind turbines have an average useful life of about 20 years. In Spain, almost half of the 23.000 MW now installed in the country will exceed 2025 years of existence in 20, which is the useful life initially thought for these facilities. Is it worth extending the useful life of wind turbines or does the entire arsenal have to be renewed?

Useful life of wind turbines

For the companies and experts participating in the conference held this week in Madrid, under the leadership of the Asociación Empresarial Eólica (AEE), extending the life of these wind farms is a very reasonable option.

The meeting lasted several days and the different lessons learned about the extension of the useful life of wind farms were discussed. Likewise, there has been a debate on the methodologies to determine the useful life of wind farms through simulation, structural validation procedures, limitations and advantages of aeroelastic models or the main factors that affect the remaining life of the parks.

To extend the life of wind farms, it is necessary to expand new agreements and operational models. In addition, it is necessary that the technology is evolving and diagnosing the problems that may occur.

You have to make decisions

Currently in our country there are 20.292 wind turbines installed in 1.080 wind farms, with a total power of more than 23.000 MW. By 2020, almost half of these wind turbines will have reached an age equal to or greater than 15 years, of which more than 2.300 MW will exceed 20 years.

It is necessary to make quick decisions, since Spain must maintain wind power generation at a rate equal to or higher than we have today, if we want to comply with European regulations and lead Spain to an energy transition.