The G10X-4.5 MW wind turbine, installed by Gamesa near Alaiz (Navarra, Spain), on 1 July set a new record for energy output by a wind turbine in Spain. The turbine generated electricity for a total of 107.82 MWh (98.26% of the day at nominal capacity and 100% of availability).

Yesterday the turbine's performance broke the previous record of 104.6 MWh, which was set by the same machine on 12 March.

Gamesa has erected in Spain three G10X-4.5 MW prototypes in Jaulin and Cabezo Negro (Zaragoza) and in Alaiz.

Lightweight, competitive and easy to transport and assemble

Gamesa's G10X-4.5 MW offers 4.5 MW of nominal capacity, which makes it the most powerful turbine on the land-based wind energy market.

Its most appealing features include its light weight, despite its size - a 120-metre tower and blades more than 62.5 metres in length -; its competitiveness in cost of energy (CoE) terms; and its ease of transport and assembly. The latter makes the turbine as easy to handle as a 2.0-MW turbine, thanks to the technology behind its segmented blade - unique in the world - and to innovations such as the FlexiFit, a crane which couples to the nacelle and serves as a tool for assembling and servicing the machine.

The annual output of a single G10X-4.5 MW is enough to:

• meet the yearly electricity needs of 4.727 households
• replace nearly 1,400 equivalent tonnes of oil (toe/year)
• prevent 9,900 tonnes of CO2 atmospheric emissions annually
• prevent 57 tonnes of SO2 and 103 tonnes of NOX emissions annually
• the annual output of a wind turbine avoids the emissions produced by 3,300 cars annually, or the emissions avoided by 1,650 hectares of forest annually