The first telescopic wind turbine worldwide on the Spanish island of Grand Canaria

As part of the H2020 Elican project, which aims to develop technological innovations for wind infrastructures, the first telescopic wind turbine worldwide is currently in the implementation phase on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria, off the northwest African coasts. This new concept uses a floating Ground Based Structure (GBS) and a self-erecting telescopic tower, which can be entirely assembled on land, with the turbine and towed in a conventional manner to the site. It doesn’t need a cumbersome and costly offshore equipment to be erected, which reduces the overall cost of the installation by 30%. All the components of the project (including a Siemens-Gamesa wind turbine of 5MW) are assembled by land in the port, then the turbine is towed in its offshore position by tugs, which is a more efficient and cost-effective manner. The H2020 Elicant project has been partially funded (70%) by the European Commission as part of the three-year Horizon 2020 program. It’s the result of the collaboration of several European partners, leaders in their respective areas such as Esteyco SA (Project leader) Gamesa Eólica, S.L.U., ALE Heavy-Lift (R&D) BV, UL International GMBH and Plocan.