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.
Image Credit: Surus Group
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 10 complete wind turbines that can be purchased as a single unit, as individual lots or as a joint lot of all ten units at a starting price of €150.
From September 5 until September 29, any investor, company or individual can bid for these first lots. Given the magnitude of the project, the remaining auctions will be held until March 5, 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 minimize 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 turbines generating 15.07 MW were replaced by 7 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 26th of this month and will last until March 5, 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 maximizing 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 specialized 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 tons 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 about 100 MW. The repowering involves dismantling the existing turbines and replacing them with a new generation of more efficient wind turbines.