Naturgy has started the construction of its seventh wind farm in Catalonia with an investment of 40 million euros. This is the Tres Termes park, in the province of Tarragona, with 30 MW (megawatts) of power. It is one more step forward in the development of this business in Catalonia, which began at the beginning of the year with the start-up of its first two parks, after ten years of wind power paralysis in the community.
In addition, it has acquired two other parks that “together with the hybridization projects it is developing will allow it to reach nearly 250 renewable MW in the coming years in Catalonia,” according to the company chaired by Francisco Reynés.
The new park, located between Batea and Vilalba dels Arcs, is expected to connect to the grid in the last quarter of 2024 and will generate renewable energy equivalent to the consumption of 26,700 homes. Its planned production is 87 GWh/year (gigawatts/hour) and, according to Naturgy calculations, it will reduce CO2 emissions by more than 43,500 tons per year, “a figure that is equivalent to removing more than 18,000 vehicles from circulation each year.” anus”.
“The beginning of the construction of this new park, together with the launch this year of the Los Barrancs and Punta Redona parks, and the hybridization projects underway, allow us to resume, after more than a decade, the installation of new renewable power in Catalonia,” says Jorge Barredo, general director of Renewables, New Business and Innovation at Naturgy.
The construction of the new park will generate around 400 direct and indirect jobs and, according to the company, a commitment has been made to subcontract companies from the Terra Alta region and the province of Tarragona.
Naturgy plans to reach an installed power of around 250 MW in Catalonia in the coming years, thanks to the new Tres Termes park and various hybridization projects with solar plants. Currently, it operates six wind farms with an installed capacity of 172 MW of power. In addition to the Los Barrancs and Punta Redona parks, the others in operation are Trucafort (30 MW) and Les Forques II (12 MW), also in the province of Tarragona; and Pujalt (48 MW) and Turó del Magre (32 MW), in the province of Barcelona. These last two have been acquired this year from the Ardian infrastructure fund. It is also developing four other photovoltaic projects in hybridization with some of its wind farms that will add 70 more renewable MW to the Catalan energy system.
In total, Naturgy has 5.7 GW of installed renewable capacity and plans to add 3 GW more until the end of 2024.