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gradually turned into curiosity. “People here
are really excited about the project.”
“La Gloria” also introduced Juwi to Costa
Rican bureaucracy. “Official procedures in
Costa Rica are very complex”, says Heine.
For someone who is not well informed and
well connected, it is easy to get lost in the
bureaucratic jungle. “But basically, there
are very good prospects for wind projects in
Costa Rica because the site conditions are
excellent.” The yield is unusual by European
standards: At 45 metres hub height, the
55 turbines of “La Gloria” are expected to
produce 240 million kWh of electricity per
year. “This corresponds to a 55 % capacity
factor, roughly twice as much as we get in
Europe on average”, explains Heine.
Complementary wind and
hydro power
The Latin America expert emphasises the
many ways in which people in the region
benefit from the project. “Especially during
the dry season from December to May, the
turbines will provide electricity almost continuously.”
Because hydropower units operate
at partial load during this time, in the dry
season Costa Rica is forced to resort to power
generation by generators that consume
expensive diesel fuel “Wind energy and hydropower
will complement each other perfectly”,
says Heine. Moreover, the country
benefits through direct job creation, orders
to subcontractors, and knowledge transfer.
For instance, ENERCON is setting up a new
Service centre for Central America in the
nearby town of Liberia. The four new technicians
staffing this centre have the opportunity
to gain as much experience as possible
with ENERCON WECs during the installation
phase. They are already able to put E-44
turbines into operation and to carry out
maintenance during the 300-hour test run.
The installation teams pair Costa Rican staff
with experienced technicians from Germany
and Brazil. With Australian Terry Stead
as installation supervisor, these ENERCON
old timers pass on their knowledge to their
new co-workers. Out of the total of 28 installation
workers, 20 are Costa Rican. “We
work in three teams:
The first team takes
care of pre-assembly
and installation of the
bottom-most tower
section. The second
team adds the upper
tower sections and
hoists the nacelle. The
third team adjusts the
tower bases to the
foundations and installs
the E-modules”,
explains Stead. Once
all bottom sections had
been put in place
(within seven days), the first team worked in
parallel with the second team. “For the last
14 days, the teams have been waiting to be
able to hoist the last turbine”, says Stead.
The windy season has started. “The locals
here think the wait will continue till June
2009.” But Stead is hopeful that the wind
will ease off one more time to allow installation
to finish.
It was mostly local companies that carried
out geotechnical investigations and preparatory
work such as building foundations
and access roads. “The way our partners
were involved in the project worked out
very well. With their excellent knowledge of
the region, we really came to depend on
them”, says Lobo-Guerrero Rodriguez.
Tower design factors in
earthquake loads
The design engineers at Wobben Research
& Development (WRD) in Aurich, Germany,
did site-specific load calculations especially
for this project. The 44-m tower consisting
of two sections was designed accordingly;
of course it is also suited to “regular”
strong-wind sites according to IEC IA. “We
also factored in the earthquake loads that
are very high in this region: The design complies
with Costa Rican and European safety
standards”, says Martin Kraft, WRD engineer
and expert for towers and foundations.
Sales representative Gordon Hoch believes
that the “La Gloria” project proves once mo-
INTERNATIONAL WINDBLATT 04 | 2008 9
Transporting towers in the Cordillera de Guanacaste.
re ENERCON’s ability to deliver on projects
worldwide, maintaining their high quality
standards while productivity at home and
abroad is increasing dramatically. Nacelles
and rotor blades were manufactured in the
Wobben Windpower plant in Brazil. All other
components were mainly made in Germany.
“All deadlines and agreements between
ENERCON Germany, the Pecem and Sorocaba
plants in Brazil and PEG were honoured
and fulfilled to the letter. The cooperation on
this project between the customer and the
sales and production teams could not have
been better”, states Hoch.
Representatives of the German Federal Government
highlighted the exemplary nature
of the Costa Rican project. State Secretary
Michael Müller from the Federal Ministry for
the Environment made the wind farm one of
several stops on his trip to Latin America.
He considered the PEG wind farm a great
example of the successful transfer of technologies
and know-how. “Importantly, Costa
Rica is taking on a pioneering role for all of
Latin America in the fields of climate protection
and biodiversity”, added Müller. He
also pointed out that Costa Rica plans to
source 100 % of its power supply from renewable
energies and thus achieve CO 2
neutrality by the year 2021, the 200th anniversary
of Costa Rican independence. “Our
country can be proud that German companies
are among those who contribute to this
goal by their investments in wind farms and
other renewable energy sources.”
Picture: Juwi