Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologica, S.A. (Gamesa) has introduced an energy efficiency program as part of the implementation of its Energyculture policy in all areas of the firm, thereby going from energy consumption to an efficient management of its own energy resources. The Gamesa Efficiency Energy Program (GEEP) is contributing to reducing Gamesa’s CO2 emissions, reducing the firm’s costs and improving its quality of life as well as the safety and health of its workers.
The program uses innovation and analysis to optimize the use of energy in production processes and facilities. All the blade, multiplier, nacelle electrical component and assembly plants around Spain, the USA and China are part of the first stage of the program, which will then be extended to the rest of the firm’s offices and work centers. The objectives of the program are to: reduce CO2 emissions; reduce non-efficient energy costs; use production processes that also excel in terms of energy management; as well as raising awareness and support from all of the workers to achieve a culture of energy efficiency at Gamesa.
The optimization of energy for production processes and facilities required an audit process at plants and office buildings which began in 2008. This has allowed the firm to identify savings on energy costs of over 5%, install energy efficient lighting which saves up to 20% of energy in lighting installations, and to indentify measures to be put in place that will reduce energy consumption in some plants in a range of between 7% and 20%.
Pilot project in Plentzia municipality, Biscay (Spain)
The success of the efficiency measures and the recommendations of the audits have led Gamesa to offer their services to other organizations.
In July 2008 a pilot project was undertaken with EVE (Ente Vasco de la Energía) to test the suitability of the use of these products in public street lighting. The products were tested in the lighting installations of the Spanish Plentzia beach, with energy savings of up to 23.8%. This resulted in an energy saving of 8,686kWh for that small scale installation, which will prevent the emission of 5 tons of CO2 to the atmosphere.
The use of this energy efficient equipment extends the life of the lighting equipment between 200% and 300%, resulting in large savings in maintenance costs.
In addition an Energy Audit and Study on the Renewable Energy Potential was undertaken in 2008 for the municipality of Chimeneas in the Province of Granada (Spain).