RWE has commissioned the repowered Muel wind farm in the Spanish region of Aragon, completing an eight-month project that replaces 27 older units with three new turbines totaling 19 megawatts (MW).
The upgrade involved dismantling 16.2MW of Nordtank turbines and installing Nordex N163/6.X models, the company said. According to RWE, the higher-capacity machines will increase the number of Spanish homes supplied by the facility from about 9,400 to 21,000 while using the same grid connection.
RWE reported that 99.82% of materials from the original wind farm were recovered or recycled, earning a ZeroWaste certificate from Bureau Veritas. A power purchase agreement for the project has been signed with an undisclosed buyer.
Dismantling work was carried out by RenerCycle. The company said 1,350 components will be reused across RWE’s wind fleet, while 1,825 tonnes of ferrous materials were recovered. All 81 blades from the old turbines were recycled to extract materials including fibreglass and resins.
Katja Wünschel, chief executive for RWE Renewables Europe & Australia, said the project demonstrates the advantages of repowering. “This is repowering at its best! From 27 to three turbines in just eight months, while more than doubling the number of homes supplied,” she said. She added that “Muel has perfectly demonstrated that repowering gives wind farms a valuable second life with close to zero waste.”
The project receives support from the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility through Spain’s Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
RWE noted that around 10GW of Spain’s onshore wind capacity will reach 25 years of operation in the coming years, presenting significant repowering opportunities. The company’s Iberian portfolio includes 18 onshore wind farms totaling about 500MW and seven solar plants with roughly 300MWac of capacity.
