The Goya wind farm is a 300MW project being developed in the Zaragoza region, Aragon, Spain. It is jointly owned by Mirova Eurofideme 3 (51%), a fund managed by Mirova, General Electric (25%), Engie (15%), and Forestalia (9%).
The €310m ($378m) project was awarded in Spain’s first auction for new renewable power generation facilities held in 2016. It is part of the 1.5GW first cluster planned to be developed in the region under Spain’s renewable energy plan.
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The Goya project was awarded the ‘Europe Wind Deal of the Year’ title at the 2018 Project Finance International (PFI) awards in February 2019.
Construction of the project was commenced in June 2018, while commissioning is scheduled for March 2020. The project is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 314,000t a year and create 700 jobs during construction and 50 permanent jobs.
Goya wind farm details
The Goya project is a cluster of nine subsidy and incentive-free wind farms named Argovento, Cañacoloma, El Saso, Sierra Luna, and Las Majas I, II, III, IV and V.
The wind farms will cover an area of 24km² in the districts of Campo de Belchite, Daroca, and Carinena in the province of Zaragoza, Aragon.
A total of 82 wind turbines will be installed with an aggregate power generation capacity of more than 900GWh a year.
Goya wind farm turbine details
The Goya wind farm will be equipped with General Electric Renewable Energy’s (GE) GE3.4-130 and GE 3.8-130 wind turbines. The GE3.4-130 turbine model has rated capacity of 3.4MW, while the GE3.8-130 has a rated capacity of 3.8MW.
Both the turbine models have a 63.7m rotor with a diameter of 130m, a swept area of 13,273m², and three blades. They will have a steel tube or concrete conical-shaped tower with heights ranging between 85m and 131m, while tip heights range between 150m and 233m.
The turbines will be manufactured by GE at its Engineering Center of Excellence in Barcelona and its manufacturing plant in Salzbergen, Germany, while the blades will be manufactured in LM Wind Power’s plants.
Transmission infrastructure details
The electricity produced by the Goya wind farm will be transmitted to the grid through a 28km-long, 220kV overhead line.
Power purchase agreement
Engie secured a 12-year power purchase agreement (PPA) in May 2018 that guarantees long-term purchase of the power generated by the Goya wind farm.
The PPA is the first in Spain to be signed for such long duration and also the first to be signed even before the completion of construction.
Engie will sell the purchased electricity on the wholesale market for the entire service life of the wind farms.
Financing
A group of Spanish banks led by Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) along with CaixaBank and Banco Santander are providing €120m ($146.3m) in financing for the project. The loan granted by the BBVA was the first green loan to be provided in Spain under the Green Loan Principles in April 2018.
The European Investment Bank provided a €50m ($60.9m) loan as part of the Juncker plan.
The remaining €140m ($170.7m) is being raised by the project partners through equity financing.
Contractors involved
The project will be constructed by a joint venture of Engie (50%), Acciona Industrial (25%), and Copsa (25%).
