Wind energy factories are back to business in Spain

Spain has been one of the countries hardest hit by COVID-19. A nation-wide lockdown was imposed on 14 March to stem the spread of coronavirus. On 29 March, the government decided to ban all non-essential work for two weeks, from 30 March to 9 April, in a bid to slow the spread of COVID-19. To comply with the strict regulation, more than 15 wind turbine or component production facilities located in Spain have been temporarily suspended by large European turbine manufacturers including Siemens Gamesa (SGRE), Nordex Acciona, Vestas and GE/LM.

After the two-weeks ban on non-essential work was lifted, activities in the industrial and construction sectors were resumed in Spain. According to SGRE, after the Easter break, their production facilities in Spain have resumed normal activity. In addition, Vestas confirmed that their generator production facility located in Viveiro restarted full production on 13 April and their blade factory in Daimiel nearly reached the full utilisation rate.

As Spain is one of Europe’s largest wind manufacturing bases as well as the home for major turbine producers Siemens Gamesa, Nordex Acciona and many other large component suppliers, GWEC believes that returning to business in the industrial and construction sectors in Spain is good news for both the domestic wind market, with 1.5 GW expected to be built in 2020 according to our pre-COVID forecasts, and international wind market and supply chain.