39 MW Wind Farm Opens In Narva, Estonia On Site Of Old Oil Shale Ash Depository
A new 39 MW wind farm park — built on the site of an old oil shale ash depository — just opened in Narva, Estonia. The 17-wind-turbine-strong wind farm — owned and operated by Eesti Energia — cost €59 million, according to Äripäev.ee/LETA.
The new wind farm was built right on top of the re-greened site of the former Baltic Power Station ash depository, which closed in 1987. Extensive work has been done to close the depository and re-green the area, beginning in 2005 with the help of the European Union Cohesion Fund.
Image via REVE
“No valuable forest or field land was used to build the wind energy park, but oil shale ashes’ depositing grounds that were unused so far were utilized,” noted Eesti Energia manager Sandor Liive.
REVE provides more:
There are 17 wind energy generators in the park. Each generator has electricity production capacity of 2.3 MW and the total capacity of the Narva wind energy park is 39.1 MW. The grounds are 40 higher than sea level. The construction of the park started in 2010, the main contractor was the German company Enercon. In order to guarantee the stability of the generators, their foundations are built on 14 poles that reach through the ashes into the land underneath. The weight of each generator with poles and foundation is 2,500 tonnes.
The new wind farm will make a nice addition to the country’s relatively new wind energy infrastructure — Estonia’s total installed wind energy capacity was just 77 MW in 2008, but over the past couple of years has grown notably, to a total of about 270 MW of capacity in 2012. There are currently a couple of GWs worth of wind energy projects in development in the Baltic country.
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