CEZ Group´s 600 MW Fantanele/Cogealac wind park, Europe’s largest onshore wind project, has entered full operation. The facility, in Romania, consists of 240 GE 2.5 MW WTGs, including the 1000th 2.5 MW class machine installed by GE worldwide.
The final turbine for Fantanele/Cogealac was connected to the regional grid in late November. The wind park is located in Dobrogea, one of the most promising wind power regions in the country. The project owner, CEZ Romania, is part of CEZ Group, the largest utility in Central Europe.
“Thanks to the Fantanele/Cogealac wind farm, CEZ is making a major contribution to increasing Romania’s renewable energy generation. Before this project, Romania’s installed wind capacity was only 14 MW” commented Ondřej Šafář, CEZ project manager.
The individual wind turbine components for the Fantanele/Cogealac wind farm were produced all over the world. The turbine nacelles were supplied from GE’s facility in Salzbergen, Germany. The rotor blades and towers came from Germany, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Poland and China. The size of the components – one rotor blade measures nearly 50 m in length – and the number of units required comprehensive planning. Twelve modes of transportation were needed to move all of the components for each wind turbine from the port of Constanta on the Black Sea to the project construction site. At peak times, 25 cranes were in action at once at one of the largest building sites in Europe.
“Detailed planning, clear processes and a lot of dedication ensured that the project was completed on time,” said Stephan Ritter, managing director of GE Renewables Europe. “We were able to feed the experience we gained during the construction phase straight back into the project.”
