Iberdrola Renovables has begun construction of the O Vieiro wind farm near the towns of Bande and Verea in Orense province, in the northwestern Spanish region of Galicia. The plant, with a production capacity of 19.9MW, will cost approximately E21 million.

The company is installing 19 wind turbines on the site, 16 of them Gamesa G-58s producing up to 850kW, two G-80s, turning out 2,000kW, and a G-87 unit that also produces up to 2,000kW of electric power.

The annual production of the facility is estimated at 45,000MWh, enough to supply the annual power needs of about 40,000 people and will avoid the emission of 18,000 tonnes of CO2 each year.

Official permits to build the facility were granted in August. The new plant strengthens Iberdrola Renovables’s position in Galicia, where it already operates 15 wind farms with a total capacity of nearly 600MW, and is to add another 25MW before the end of the year.