Wind energy in Russia, The Azov wind farm takes shape

The construction site of Russia’s Azov wind farm welcomes its first batch of wind turbines as the wind power plant is slated to go online by the end of 2020.

Enel Green Power is ready to unleash the wind of sustainability on theRostov. The first batch of towers and nacelles – the fundamental building blocks of Russia’s Azov wind farm – has been delivered to the construction site.

The first batch of towers – over a total of 26 turbines – consists of three sections to be assembled on-site. The largest is 30 meters long, weighing 79 tonnes for a combined weight from three sections reaching almost 200 tonnes. The journey from the Taganrog terminal to the construction site took 12 hours.

Traveling by land and sea on a month-long journey, the first nacelle and a rotor joined the towers in the construction site, as five more nacelles and eight rotors will soon be part of this impressive endeavor since the total weight of the payload reached over 720 tonnes (one nacelle weighs 68 tonnes and a rotor about 35 tonnes).

Sustainability and safety

In order to carry out land transport, we’ve arranged a detailed logistics plan, charting an unobstructed course for our special vehicles. Access roads that could withstand such a heavy load had to be built from scratch as a way to guarantee the utmost safety of the oversize load.

The first batch of wind blades – each 65.5 meters long, weighing 20 tonnes – reached the Azov construction site. Delivery of the main components marks the final stage in the wind farm’s construction process. The Azov facility is slated to go online by the end of 2020. Once fully operational, the wind farm will generate roughly 320 GWh of renewable energy each year, offsetting over 250,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

EGP’s first trio of Russian wind farms

Azov is no doubt an ambitious project, but it’s far from being the only Russian project Enel Green Power is working on. As a matter of fact, we’ve started construction on the   201 MW Kolskaya wind farm in the Murmansk region, destined to become the largest renewable power plant north of the polar circle. In June 2019, following a renewable energy auction sanctioned by the Russian government, we’ve secured rights for the construction of the 71 MW Rodnikovsky wind farm, located in the Stavropol region.

Overall, the investments will amount to approximately 495 million Euros on this trio of wind farms, and what’s more, it’s a testament to the company’s strong commitment to supporting Russia’s energy transition and the attainment of UN-sponsored Sustainable Development Goals.