Brazil: ACCIONA Windpower opens a service center for wind farms contracted in the Northeast

The center, located in one of the main cities of the state of Rio Grande do Norte, will allow the company to provide operation and maintenance services in an agile and efficient way, fulfilling its commitment to optimize after-sales service to its customers and the operability of its installations.

The new facility covers 2,000 m², including a spare parts store, and another 600 m² of offices for administration, staff training and technical support. One of the functions of the center is the remote control of the wind farms. It will be initially staffed by twelve people, and this figure is expected to double in two years’ time when all the wind farms contracted will enter service.

“The Mossoró Service Center puts us in an excellent position to provide the best after-sale service to our customers that have wind farms in the northeast of the country. It will facilitate the technical training of people in the area and will represent a major competitive advantage for our company”, says ACCIONA Windpower Brasil Director Christiano Forman.

Seven wind farms in the region

Northeast Brazil accounts for 71% of the wind turbine supply contracts signed by ACCIONA Windpower in the country (792 MW out of a total of 1,119 MW) corresponding to wind power complexes.

One of them -Areia Branca (90 MW)- is already operational and another –Sao Miguel de Gostoso (108 MW)- is currently under construction. Both are owned by Voltalia and are located in Rio Grande do Norte.

Other projects for the same customer - Vila Pará (99 MW) and Vila Amazonas (93 MW)- are also located in that state. The latter is under construction and the companies Chesf and Encalso also have a stake in it.

The service center at Mossoró will also provide a service to the Itarema I and II (207 MW) wind farms developed by Rio Energy in the state of Ceará, and to Lagoa do Barro-Queimada Nova (195 MW) wind complex, owned by Atlantic Energias Renováveis and Actis, in the state of Piauí.

3 MW turbines

All the projects supplied by ACCIONA Windpower in Brazil incorporate the three-megawatt rated capacity AW3000 turbine. It is available in different versions, with rotor diameters of 116 and 125 meters, mounted on 100- and 120-meter (hub height) concrete towers.

This turbine’s performance has demonstrated that it has adapted to the Brazilian market completely.The company has also exceeded the requirements for local contracting of parts stipulated in the FINAME regulations, which was achieved six months ahead of the January 1^st 2016 deadline.

The company has a nacelle assembly plant in Brazil (in Bahia) that also has a hub assembly section, plus a concrete tower production facility in Rio Grande do Norte. It purchases the blades and other components for the turbine in Brazil.

ACCIONA Windpower is currently taking part in the Brazil Windpower 2015 trade fair, the most important wind power event in the country, in Rio de Janeiro.