Lately a lot has been heard about Norvento after having won 128 MW wind power in the renewable auction held on May 17. But this family company based in Galicia (Lugo), has a history of almost 40 years.
Founded in 1981 by the brothers Pablo and Marta Fernández Castro As an engineering firm, it took its first steps in the energy world with the exploitation of mini-hydroelectric plants in the early days of liberalization and was able to take advantage of the momentum of renewables from the 90s. Not surprisingly, it was the first Galician company with a wind farm.
Norvento
According to the Director of Energy of Norvent, Ivan Nogueiras: "We were integrating all the activities that were born in the renewable environment, such as engineering, operation or maintenance." This is the “traditional business” (with a portfolio of 110 MW in operation) to which “a new leg” has been added, that of distributed energy, in which Norvento sees a huge opportunity.
The manager explains that about 10 years ago, “when renewables were showing signs of exhaustion in Spain”, the company made the leap abroad, to Chile, Brazil, Poland, the United States or the United Kingdom. And, in parallel, “we began to see that large wind projects were no longer going to be developed and that there was a gap for distributed generation”. In this sense, Norvento developed un wind turbine (the nED100) for large consumers, not only industries, but also ports, residential areas, shopping centers or farms.
nED100
A mill that, with 100 kW of power and 30 meters in height, is closer to the performance of the big ones than to the small ones, and is intended “for consumers who want to integrate your renewable generation (not only photovoltaic, but also wind, geothermal or biogas), close to the point of consumption ”, indicates Nogueiras.
Auctions
Although the award in the auction has been something very important for the company, Nogueiras considers that the first big step “we took it in 2010, when we won the Xunta wind power competition, in which we achieved 300 MW ”. Norvento has been developing these projects, which, however, lacked a remuneration framework, after the renewable moratorium approved in January 2012.
Taking into account that these permits have an expiration date (five years, the administrative authorization and the connection and six years the DIA), the manager clarifies that the terms of the Galician tender are compatible with those of the auction, whose projects must be finished before of December 31, 2019. "They are more than demanding deadlines, you have to have well-studied projects ”.
Noting that Norvento has an important portfolio (300 MW out of the 128 that it has obtained in the bid), its managers admit that they will study to present themselves to the new auction which, by surprise, has reconvened the Ministry of Energy For this summer. Theoretically, with the same conditions as the previous one.
Regarding the current auction system, to which not everyone sees advantages, in Norvento they have their own opinion. Between the one on May 17 and the first, held in January 2016 (which he also attended, but was left out), the difference is that in that one a floor was not guaranteed at the market price: the maximum discount of the investment to which the companies were willing was 100%, while in the last one, it was 60%.
Financial entities are key players in this type of capital-intensive projects. "When you approve an investment, you are tied to it for 20 years," says Nogueiras. "Banks don't like the electricity marketIt is very volatile: when the price is right, you can repay the debt, but if it goes down, you can't reduce the risk. That is why the last auction, when fixing a floor, will allow obtaining financing. In the previous one, there was no such protection ”.
Following the argument, Iván Noriegas maintains that the great technological advance It already allows the development of profitable parks charging the market price. An idea increasingly widespread and unthinkable a short time ago. “R&D departments have made impressive progress, which has reduced costs and that projects can be made to market ”. Of course, he underlines, “as long as you have a good location”. Because, “just as photovoltaics is more homogeneous, wind power depends on the location”. According to their data, in 10 years, the cost of the MWh of wind energy has decreased by 60%.
In addition to the technologists, also the promoters, such as Norvento, “have done their job”. In this sense, Nogueiras recalls that the company has been exploiting for years «the wind resource in Galicia »
The next auction, practically the same as the previous one, could set a lower ground, to allow photovoltaics to compete, which was considered discriminated against as mentioned HERE by rules that favored wind power.
