Norvento Enerxía will supply 100% renewable energy to the Portuguese island of Corvo

• The project, developed for the energy company EDA Renováveis by the Galician company, will enable part of the electricity demand of the most northern island in the Azores with green sources.
• Norvento will install seven nED100 medium power wind turbines and the SCADA System for monitoring and control of the whole wind farm at Corvo.
• The implementation of Norvento’s technology will improve the quality of the electricity supply to the 400 inhabitants on the island, who have been entirely dependent on fossil fuels up to now.

Norvento Enerxía, a company that generates renewable energy, technology associated with products, and advanced solutions for distributed energy, has started to implement a new project on the Portuguese island of Corvo (Azores). It will be able to cover part of the electricity demand of this territory using renewable sources.

The project, developed by Norvento for the Portuguese energy company EDA Renováveis, will be executed under the turnkey or EPC modality, and it will consist of deploying on the island seven medium-power nED100 wind turbines manufactured at its factory in Vilalba (Lugo), with a monitoring system: SCADA, designed by the Galician company.

This technology will allow controlling the status of every component in the wind farm while using a communication protocol compatible and integrable with the system developed by EDA Renováveis.

Renewable energy independence in Azores

The implementation of this project will improve the quality of the electricity supply to the 400 inhabitants of the island, as well as the hundreds of tourists who visit it every year, allowing them to be self-sufficient in energy through renewable sources and minimising the risk of blackouts.

Until now, this island depended exclusively on fossil fuels from the sea to obtain energy. In this sense, Norvento’s nED100 medium-power wind turbines, designed and manufactured at the company’s factory in Lugo, will contribute to reducing the production costs of the energy consumed by the inhabitants of the island of Corvo and will allow them to access a clean and reliable source of supply.

The wind technology deployed by Norvento also guarantees supply in areas with difficult meteorological conditions and orography, as Corvo. With a surface area of 17.13 km², 6.5 km long and 4 km wide, this is a terrain that is difficult to access due to its geographical location, as, together with the island of Flores, it is the westernmost island of the Azores archipelago and therefore one of the last points in Europe to the west.

A challenge in terms of logistics and construction

This project represents a logistical and civil work challenge for Norvento, due to the complex orography of Corvo, its changing climate and the limited availability of construction materials on the island, causing the company to transport from the mainland the inert materials and machinery to carry out the project, as well as the means of transport and lifting, electrical systems and other elements necessary to execute the work.

Likewise, and due to the existing limitations of the island’s logistics terminal, which has a reduced capacity to absorb containerised tonnes, it is necessary to implement a series of large-scale logistics solutions that include the transport by sea of the nED100 from the Port of Lisbon, and its subsequent transfer by ship to Corvo. From there, they will be transported by lorry to their final location, in a manoeuvre that will take advantage of the summer months to reduce the impact of the weather on the assembly work.

At Norvento, we are pleased that EDA Renováveis has trusted us to improve the renewable electricity supply to Corvo Island. Our experience in distributed energy projects and microgrids has allowed us to deploy this infrastructure to make the inhabitants of Corvo self-sufficient with renewable resources. This project highlights the opportunities offered by the renewable technology to reduce dependence on fossil fuels in small electricity systems and boost their energy development, as well as their decarbonisation’, says Juan Morilla, Operations Area Manager of Norvento Enerxía.