One year ago exactly, on December 1, 2022, we made history: EL5-Energo launched the world's largest wind farm beyond the Arctic Circle!
The first stage of Kola wind farm amounted to 170 MW, being equal to 84% of the designed capacity. And on March 1, 2023, our wind farm reached 100% of its installed capacity – 202 MW.
Certainly, the path to implementing this large-scale project was a challenging one. Harsh natural conditions, the pandemic and external conditions made the wind farm construction process a true story of overcoming the opportunities. But the most important issue for us in this project is the people. Up to a thousand people on the construction site and numerous project teams participated together in making a dream come true: taming the wind for the benefit of people using the high technologies in the Arctic! Two million man-hours were spent to implement this project, and the construction itself lasted 3.5 years. We are proud of every team member!
Delivery of components for the wind farm turned out to be one of the most complex logistics operations in the history of Murmansk region. Blades, multi-ton towers and nacelles were delivered by sea on cargo ships, and transformers and electrical substations arrived by rail.
The wind farm's 57 WTGs are majestic towers weighing almost 200 tons and being 150 meters high from the base to the top of the blade, which are spread over the area of 257 hectares. The design output of Kola Wind Farm is about 750 million kWh per year, thus preventing up to 600 thousand tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
During this year, Kola Wind Farm has already participated in several significant public events.
In summer, July 15, 2022, the real EL5-Energy Trail was held on the territory of Kola Wind Farm. In harmony with the wind, hundreds of athletes and amateurs took part in the race on rough tracks. The number of participants reached half a million. On October 8, 2023, students and young scientists whose projects are aimed at developing the Arctic visited Kola Wind Farm as part of the scientific expedition “Ticket to the Arctic.” Kola Wind Farm is becoming an integral part of the tourist route to Teriberka; we have often been asked lately: “How can we get to Kola Wind Farm?” Therefore, we actively interact with the tourism community, and recently published a guide with the most interesting facts and questions about the wind farm (the link)
Kola wind farm is presented among the main achievements of Russia on the website “Achievements.rf” (the link) of the ANO Russia – the Land of Opportunity. The goal of the project is to tell about the scientific, technological and cultural potential of our Motherland.
“We have built the largest wind farm in the world beyond the Arctic Circle. Arctic wind energy is now available to everyone!” - Alibek Tnalin, General Director of EL5-Energo.
Kola Wind Farm is a story of strength and beauty being created not only by strong efforts but also by inspiration. This story is exactly one year old today. But this is only the beginning of the saga about the wind.