Wind turbines are being installed at Kola windfarm consruction site
The first wind turbine was installed at the construction site of Enel Russia’s Kola wind farm.
A crane with a 750-ton lifting capacity was used for performing assembly works at the construction site. Each wind turbine consists of a tower weighing about 200 tons and a height of 84 meters, on which a 68-ton nacelle is mounted with a transmission system and a hub installed in it. At the final stage three blades are installed, having the length of 65 meters each, that is comparable to the height of a 20-storey building.
57 wind turbines in total will be operated on the area of 257 hectares, making up the largest wind farm in Russia beyond the Arctic Circle. Its construction in the extreme conditions of the North has become a real challenge for the engineers and builders. Thus, to deliver a transformer of the wind farm substation weighing 122 tons, a portable short-gap bridge was built across the Kanentyavr River. For the delivery of the nacelles in April 2021, a special port and road infrastructure was prepared, and for the subsequent delivery of the blades a lighting pole on the Kola Bridge was dismantled. The preparatory works were carried out in difficult (challenging) weather conditions.
Enel Russia was awarded with the 201 MW Kola wind farm project in the 2017 Russian Government tender for the construction of 1.9 GW of wind capacity in the country. Kola wind farm will be able to generate around 750 GWh per year, avoiding the emission of around 600 000 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year. The wind facility will consist of 57 turbines covering a 257-hectare area. Kola wind farm is expected to be commissioned in May 2022. The project is being implemented by Enel Rus Wind Kola, a subsidiary of Enel Russia. The wind farm has been assigned the status of a strategic investment project in Murmansk region.