ACCIONA Energía has completed the repowering of its Tahivilla wind farm (84.4MW) in Tarifa, Spain, which is now undergoing full commissioning.
The repowering project involved replacing 98 older turbines with 13 next-generation units, increasing annual energy production by 72% thanks to higher installed capacity and improved performance, while maintaining the same export capacity.
Tahivilla is expected to generate 254 GWh of electricity per year, preventing the emission of around 108 000 tpy of CO2.
The project is supported by a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) secured with a private customer. This agreement has played a key role in enabling the repowering of the project by providing long-term revenue stability and supporting part of the investment required to modernise the site. In addition, ACCIONA Energía received €8.3 million in funding from the Spanish Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan (PRTR), financed by the EU’s NextGenerationEU programme.
The repowering of Tahivilla created more than 1000 jobs through the dismantling of the former wind farm and the construction of the new one. The number of turbines on site has been significantly reduced, optimising land use, and improving the wind farm’s environmental integration, while extending its operational life and maximising the available wind resource.
Where appropriate, repowering can offer significant advantages over building a new wind farm from scratch: it typically benefits from stronger social acceptance in areas already familiar with renewables, involves a lower environmental impact by reusing existing infrastructure and reducing the number of turbines, and shortens development timelines. In addition, the costs and investment risks are lower.
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