After only four months of construction work, Nordex has launched its new mobile concrete tower production plant for wind turbines in Spain. In Motilla del Palancar, in Castilla-La Mancha, a concrete tower production plant of more than 120,000 square meters has been set up.
The Nordex Group started production of the first concrete tower segments as early as September 2020. Today, the Group employs 250 people at this plant and thereafter this figure will be increased to 300. The factory only manufactures for the own requirements of the Group.
The interior is equipped with powerful cranes to lift the segments, weighing 45 to 55 tonnes, inside the factory. Seven molds are used to produce the convex concrete tower segments, which measure between 17 and 20 meters. The Nordex Group sources the concrete from a local supplier in the immediate vicinity.
The plant can produce a total of 50 concrete tower segments per week. This equates to two towers with hub heights of 120 meters. The Nordex Group is currently equipping four wind farm projects in Spain with concrete towers. Segments are assembled on-site at wind farms when turbines are installed.
“Knowing about the design and production method of our concrete towers for our turbines is a fundamental skill to implement our clients’ wind energy projects in a profitable way. For example, by producing the concrete towers on the site close to the wind farm we can reduce logistics costs since distances and transport times are much shorter, ”explains José Luis Blanco, CEO of the Nordex Group.
Like the eleven tower manufacturing plants established by the Nordex Group around the world, this factory is also based on a mobile concept. In principle, the plant can be completely disassembled and reassembled anywhere in the world near the new wind farms to be built. For example, some cranes in Motilla del Palancar come from a concrete factory in India, while some of the molds come from Spain and a plant in Chile.
The Group has installed more than 30 GW of wind power capacity in more than 40 markets and in 2019 generated revenues of EUR 3.3 billion. Currently, the company employs a workforce of more than 8,400. Joint manufacturing capacity includes factories in Germany, Spain, Brazil, the United States, India, Argentina and Mexico. The product portfolio focuses on onshore turbines in the 2.4 to 5.X MW class, which are tailor-made for the market requirements of countries with limited space and regions with limited grid capacity.
