Gamesa has completed assembly of the main parts (tower, nacelle and blades) of Spain’s first prototype offshore wind turbine, which has been installed at the Arinaga Quay in Gran Canary Island.
Installation of the tower, nacelle and the three blades, which were shipped from Bilbao port to the Canaries, began in the middle of April with the tower assembly work. The tower measures 90 metres in total and is made by Windar (a joint venture between Gamesa and Daniel Alonso). The nacelle, made in Tauste (Zaragoza), measures over 12.5 metres long and is 4 metres tall and wide. It weighs 72 tonnes. Once the nacelle was hoisted onto the tower, work began to assemble the three blades, each of which measures 62.5 metres long and weighs 15 tonnes. Gamesa will now begin the turbine’s electrical assembly and grid connection work with a view to putting it into operation in the third quarter of the year and achieving certification in the months thereafter. This would enable installation of the initial offshore units in 2014. The company invested more than half a million euro engineering hours in the turbine's design process.