First wind farm repowering in Africa

The Spanish company, Surus Group, participates in the dismantling thanks to its circular repowering model in which profits are maximised and environmental impact is minimised.

The Surus Group, through its online platform Escrapalia, has put 73 wind turbines up for public auction. They come from the Koudia Al Baida wind farm, located in Morocco.

They are Vestas V42 wind turbines, manufactured between 1999 and 2000. Each wind turbine, with an output of 600 kW, includes the nacelle and rotor blades.

The sale will be divided into different online auctions through Escrapalia. The first of these, already available on the portal, features 12 complete wind turbines that can be purchased as a single unit, as individual lots, or as a joint lot of all 10 units at a starting price of €150.

From 5 September until 29 September, any investor, company, or individual can bid for these first lots. Given the magnitude of the project, the remaining auctions will be held until 5 March 2023 throughout the dismantling process.

Surus to dismantle the entire wind farm

The auction is part of the complete dismantling project of the Koudia Al Baida wind farm, located in Tangier-Tetouan-Al (Hoceïma). The project has been awarded by the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (Masen) to Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, which in turn relies on the expertise of Surus, a Spanish company in charge not only of the sale but also of its associated processes. Surus will manage the dismantling of the wind turbines to minimise the visual and environmental footprint.

The Surus Group will apply to this project the experience acquired in Zas and Corme (La Coruña), where 141 wind turbines were replaced by 17 wind turbines maintaining the same power output (42.3 MW), or in Malpica (La Coruña), where 69 tubines generating 15.07 MW were replaced by seven new ones that produce 16.45 MW. This represents 65% of the total MW repowering carried out in Spain.

The work on the field will start on the 26^th of this month and will last until 5 March 2023. The Surus Group includes this project in its sustainability policy based on the principles of circular economy, seeking to extend the life cycle of equipment and reduce waste by reusing assets and recycling. Dismantling projects are approached from the perspective of maximising the three angles of value generation: environmental, economic, and social.

Second life: wind blades turned into raw material for cement

Blade recycling is one of the biggest complications to address in terms of sustainability when repowering a wind farm, as fiberglass management is very complex. In the case of this project, Surus will be in charge of recycling the surplus blades, which will be taken to a specialised plant where they will be shredded. This shredded material will be taken to a cement factory and used for the manufacture of cement, thus re-entering the production process, which means the generation of zero waste. In this way 241 t of waste that would be generated by the blades alone will be avoided.

In addition to managing the sale of the wind turbines, a second life will also be sought for the wind farm’s transformer substations. In this first auction, already open for bids, 20 units of 630 KVA manufactured by Alcatel are auctioned with a starting price of €150.

Repowering the wind farm

The Koudia Al Baida wind farm is in the process of being repowered. The expansion plan carried out by the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (Masen) aims to make it one of the largest in the Kingdom.

The wind farm has been operating since year 2000 with a capacity of 50.4 MW based on 84 wind turbines. Thanks to this repowering project, it will increase its capacity to approximately 100 MW. The repowering involves dismantling the existing turbines and replacing them with a new generation of more efficient wind turbines.

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