1. The company

ECOTÈCNIA has been working in the wind power sector since 1981, designing, manufacturing and operating its own wind turbines and the wind farms which it constructs as 'turnkey' ready-to-use installations for its clients. The company's staff consists of 250 persons, divided between the head offices in Barcelona, its factories in As Somozas and Buñuel and its wind farm maintenance centres.

	60 MW Wind Farm in Montes de Cierzo (Navarra) - 2000

The most significant feature of its company strategy is the development of the most advanced technology, with the aim of supplying wind turbines which guarantee an optimum relationship between quality and energy performance and which are economically competitive.

Since April 1999, ECOTÈCNIA has formed part of MONDRAGÓN CORPORACIÓN COOPERATIVA (MCC). This organisation is composed of over 100 cooperatives which work in various industrial sectors, in the distribution sector and the financial sector, with the savings bank Caja Laboral as its most representative institution. The Industrial Group comprises the following divisions: Automotion, Components, Construction, Industrial Equipment, Household, Machine Tools, and Engineering and Capital Goods. The group also has 3 R&D centres and its own University of acknowledged prestige. The aggregate annual turnover of the companies of MCC exceeds one billion pesetas, with an equity capital of 667,000 million pesetas, and they employ 53,000 persons around the world.

With this integration, MCC makes a powerful entry into the energy sector in alliance with ECOTÈCNIA, which in turn assumes within the group the leadership of this new activity, generating synergies with other companies to reinforce the industrial activity and acquire greater size and market share.

ECOTÈCNIA possesses the certificate issued by Germanischer Lloyd Certification GmbH of Hamburg, which testifies that its Quality Management System complies with the requirements of the DIN EN ISO 9001 standard.

This certificate covers all of the activities inherent to the construction of a wind farm in an integral manner: from the phase of engineering and analysis of wind-power potential to the operation and maintenance of the plant, including the design and manufacture of the wind turbines themselves, and the design and construction of the necessary infrastructures.

The adaptation to the ISO 9001 standard is one more step forward to remain in the vanguard of technological development, and establishes a landmark in the confidence of the insurance companies, the financial institutions and the clients in general towards wind-power projects.

The result of this line of action is the national and international recognition of its wind turbines.

The values on which ECOTÈCNIA bases its corporate development and its Strategic Plan are: Client Satisfaction, Development, Commitment to People and Profitability.

ECOTÈCNIA's business structure has grown significantly in recent years; it currently has a production capacity of wind turbines of 500 MW/year, distributed between the models of 640 and 750 kW of power, to which the new development of 1300 kW will be added very soon.

The head offices are located in Barcelona; it has two wind turbine assembly plants in As Somozas (A Coruña) and in Buñuel (Navarra), and it is building a manufacturing plant for wind turbine towers in Miranda de Ebro (Burgos), representing in total a constructed surface area of 20.500 m². It also has work centres in Andalusia, Catalonia, the Canary Islands and Galicia.

ECOTÈCNIA also develops wind farms in collaboration with various companies, notably VENDAVAL, S.A., in which it participates together with other companies of Mondragón Corporación Cooperativa.

In the international field, ECOTÈCNIA is present virtually all over the world, either directly or through MCC; specifically, it has carried out installations in India, Cuba and imminently in Japan. In other countries it is carrying out promotional activities in collaboration with local companies, including HITACHI ZOSEN (Japan), INVAP (Argentina) and IHLAS (Turkey), due to their commercial capacity and market development potential.

2. Products and activities

• Wind Turbines and Wind Farms

ECOTÈCNIA's range of wind turbines is designed to permit the use at each site of the turbine most suited to both its wind conditions and its topographic characteristics. To this end we have 4 models of wind turbine, classified by rotor diameter and nominal power, on the basis of which the technical and economic viability of each project is analysed:

Model	Power	Diameter
ECOTÈCNIA 225	225 kW	28 m
ECOTÈCNIA 640	640 kW	44 m
ECOTÈCNIA 750	750 kW	48 m
ECOTÈCNIA 1300	1300 kW	60 m

The 1300 kW model will be commercialised within the year 2001.

From the technological point of view, a number of innovative technical criteria have been applied in the design of these wind turbines. The consequences of the application of these criteria can be summarised as:

1. lower dynamic loads and lower extreme loads on the bearings and gearwheels of the gearbox,
2. greater safety in the gearbox on braking directly where the torsion torque occurs due to the wind,
3. greater electrical yield at average wind speeds

One of the most important points of these turbines is that they have been designed taking into account ECOTÈCNIA's experience in "complex terrain." Most sites are not located on flat terrain, and in mountainous topography the wind regime is much stronger and more variable.

ECOTÈCNIA has developed the concept of "variable speed" of the rotor applied to "fixed-pass" wind turbines, which combines the simplicity of the fixed-pass with the increase of energy efficiency at low wind speeds of the variable-speed system. This system, which is already in the testing phase and will be commercialised in the year 2001, will be ideal for sites with moderate winds.

To sum up, ECOTÈCNIA has developed technologies for both sites with moderate winds and sites with very strong, turbulent winds and complex topography, always with the aim of obtaining the maximum efficiency of the investment made.

Since the year 1992, when the SEASA wind farm entered operation, ECOTÈCNIA has carried out an large number of installations. It currently has a total installed power of 281 MW with 604 wind turbines of various unit power values: 150, 225, 640 and 750 kW. During the year 2000, 150 MW have been installed, with 214 units, and in 2001, 300 wind turbines will be installed, representing a total power of 225 MW.

ECOTÈCNIA is fundamentally a manufacturer of wind turbines, but frequently, in response to its clients' needs, it complements this activity with the 'turnkey' construction of the complete wind farm.

In both the supply of wind turbines and the 'turnkey' construction of wind farms, ECOTÈCNIA provides the necessary guarantees to make the investment profitable: guarantees of materials, power curve, availability, etc.

In this aspect, it should be pointed out that the power curve of each of its wind turbine models has been certified by an independent body of prestige of the MEASNET network.

ECOTÈCNIA also offers its services of Operation, Maintenance and Explotation of Wind Farms, if the client requests them, guaranteeing in this case the operation of the wind turbines at a stable price.

• Autonomous systems

Many zones of the planet need electricity supply but have no grid access; in these cases, the most appropriate source of energy is that based on a combination of renewable energies available supported by other fuels. In recent years ECOTÈCNIA has entered into the development of made-to-measure applications to offer this type of service, and has carried out almost 100 autonomous photovoltaic and hybrid wind-solar installations for rural electrification, some of them in countries such as Uruguay, Sierra Leona, Ghana and Mozambique. It recently launched onto the market the CYCLOPS, an integral system of advanced control and conversion of energy for autonomous hybrid wind-photovoltaic-diesel plants in the range between 10 and 50 kW for systems remote from the electrical grid.

3. The environment

All of the activities which ECOTÈCNIA has carried out since its beginnings, in 1981, have been related with the respect for the environment: wind power, thermal solar power, photovoltaic solar power and management of solid urban wastes. This respect is one of the company's principal founding objectives and as such it is rigorously observed in all of the projects which it carries out.

In the case of wind farms, the commitment has been undertaken to conduct environmental impact studies in all projects, whether or not required by the corresponding Administration. To this end, a collaboration agreement has been signed with a prestigious Spanish organisation, the Doñana Biological Station, which carries out the part of the work corresponding to the study of the avifauna, in collaboration with local groups and institutions.

Principal installations carried out by Ecotècnia, S.C.C.L.
Installation	Power	Date
Wind Farm of Tarifa (Cádiz)	50 * 150 kW	1992
Wind Farm of the Baix Ebre (Tarragona)	27 * 150 kW	1995
Wind Farm in Gujarat (INDIA)	10 * 225 kW	1996
Test Plant in Tarifa (Cádiz)	2 * 640 kW	1996
Wind Farm of Malpica (A Coruña)	67 * 225 kW	1997
Wind Farm of Trucafort, Phase I (Tarragona)	66 * 225 kW	1998
Wind Farm of Cabanillas (Navarra)	50 * 600 kW	1998
Wind Farm of Trucafort, Phase II (Tarragona)	25 * 640 kW	1999
Wind Farm of Tiraguanó (CUBA)	2 * 225 kW	1999
Wind Farm of Los Lances (Cádiz)	9 * 640 kW	1999
Wind Farm of Punta Gaviota (Gran Canaria)	11 * 640 kW	2000
Wind Farm of Somozas (A Coruña)	80 * 640 kW	1999- 2000
Wind Farm of Montes de Cierzo (Navarra)	85 * 700 kW	1999- 2000
Wind Farm of Caparroso (Navarra)	43 * 750 kW	2000
Wind Farm of La Bandera (Navarra)	43 * 750 kW	2000
Wind Farm Monte Redondo (Galicia)	66 * 750 kW	2001
Wind Farm of Novo (Galicia)	25 * 750 kW	2001
Wind Farm of Tauste (Zaragoza)	14 * 750 kW	2001
Wind Farm of Páramo de Poza (Burgos)	133 * 750 kW	2001
Wind Farm of Ito Country Club (Japan)	1 * 640 kW	2001

 

Ecotècnia, S.Coop.
Amistat 23
08005 Barcelona (Spain)

Tel +34.93.2257600
Fax +34.93.2210939
ecotecnia@ecotecnia.com
http://www.ecotecnia.com

 

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