Author: divulgacion

As we have announced recently, the new Permanent Orienteering Track Sotavento | Serrón do Lobo is now open to the public. We are glad to invite you to this amazing outdoor activity to enjoy with family and friends and suitable for all ages and physical conditions, since there are 5 different routes to choose with various lengths and technical levels. Furthermore, this is a great opportunity to enjoy the natural environment and breathtaking scenery that surround the wind farm.

In order to celebrate the inauguration of the track, all the participants that complete the track during August 2021 will get free access to a guided tour around the Sotavento Experimental Wind Farm and will enter a draw for a surprise giveaway.

Below are the links to download the maps of the 5 routes for free. Remember that they can also be downloaded with the QR codes on the board that you will find outside the main building.

 

Map Sotavento                                                                                                                                                     

Route 1: Easy Short

 

Map Serrón do Lobo                                                                                                                                          

Route 2: Easy Short

Route 3: Easy Long

Route 4: Medium Short

Route 5: Medium Long

 

Sotavento has been able to adapt to the circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic redesigning their activities to minimize the negative impact of the new sanitary and economic situation.

With this purpose two new formats of educational activities have been introduced in addition to the usual ones: activities at schools and online activities.

Furthermore, several demonstrative projects have been carried out, such as a solar energy storage system and a predictive management system for underfloor heating, that have been presented on the 21^st June 2021 during the celebration of the 20^th anniversary of Sotavento.

The training activities have also played an important role during the year. As an example, it’s interesting to highlight the collaboration with the MATES project (Maritime Alliance for Fostering the European Blue Economy through a Marine Technology Skilling Strategy), a pilot activity focused on the training of wind energy educators, whose purpose is strengthening the abilities of technical teachers to train the future workers of the offshore wind energy sector.

The results show a total of 163 visits booked during the school year 2020/2021. The number of visitors have reached 3.830 people, which makes an average of 23 attendees per visit. The final term of the school year (April to June) has been the busiest by far.

As usual since the beginning of the educational activities in Sotavento, most of the visitors have come from the region of Galicia, particularly from the provinces of A Coruña and Lugo.

Regarding the type of groups, primary schools and high schools are the most numerous. Together they have reached the 80% of the visitors during this school year, overtaking the technical visits that used to be more frequent in the previous years.

Last but not least, a Permanent Orienteering Track has been set up in collaboration with the village of Xermade, where the wind farm is located, to enhance the touristic appeal of the area during the summer. Besides, during the month of August 2021 a prize will be given to all participants that can complete any of the various routes available within a certain time limit.

The village of Xermade (Lugo, Spain) and the Sotavento Experimental Wind Farm inaugurated the Permanent Orienteering Track “Serrón do Lobo”.

Both organizations signed a collaboration agreement to create a map and five routes suitable for all ages with different lengths and difficulties.

The purpose of the permanent orienteering track “Serrón do Lobo” is encouraging outdoor activities in nature and providing a leisure alternative which is free, suitable for all ages and perfect for spending time with the family.

Those interested in the track just need to come over to the facilities of the Sotavento Experimental Wind Farm in the village of Xermade. Outside the building there is a board showing the different maps and routes to be downloaded. In order to complete the chosen track, the participants need to look for the beacons shown on the map in the right order and write down the control number that appears on each one.

The map will be used as well for national and regional orienteering competitions in  the following years. In fact, during the inauguration ceremony held by the mayor of Xermade, Roberto Pernas, the I race of the GALICIAN LEAGUE OF TRAIL-O in the category TEMP-O took place with over 50 participants.

The permanent orienteering track “Serrón do Lobo” serves as a touristic attraction in the village of Xermade. The natural environment that surrounds the Sotavento Experimental Wind Farm offers an ideal location for this kind of sport thanks to the features of the ground, including slopes, transitions between different types of vegetation and more technical areas, as well as a magnificent landscape that delights the participants along the route. Furthermore, it provides a perfect opportunity to enjoy a day outdoors with family or friends, so important nowadays during the pandemic, when we must be encouraging leisure activities in the outdoors surrounded by nature.

On the 21 of June the Sotavento Experimental Wind Farm celebrated its 20^th anniversary with a ceremony held at its facilities located near the city of Lugo (Spain).

The attendees included the Deputy Vicepresident and Regional Minister of Economy, Business and Innovation from the Xunta de Galicia, the mayors of Xermade and Monfero, representatives from the partners that constitute Sotavento Galicia, S.A. and the Sotavento Galicia Foundation, representatives from several companies that collaborate with the Experimental Wind Farm and Sotavento’s staff.

The ceremony began at 11.30 am with a tour around Sotavento’s facilities, including the Demonstrative Bioclimatic House, where two of the latest projects carried out by Sotavento were launched:

Battery-powered self-sufficient housing

This project consisted in the installation of an energy storage system with batteries that enables stocking up on the energy produced by the renewable sources installed in the house in order to achieve self-sufficiency. Like all projects carried out by Sotavento, this had a clear demonstrative and educational purpose, for which some specific applications have been developed to show real-time and historic data of the installation, as well as to calculate expenses, cost-effectiveness and even extrapolate real data applicable to each particular user.

Intelligent management of underfloor heating in the demonstrative bioclimatic house

This demonstrative project consisted in the installation of a management system that turns the underfloor heating on and off automatically according to weather forecasts and considering the thermal inertia of this system. This way the user achieves more comfort with minimum energy consumption and economic expense.

 

After the tour, the ceremony went on with a commemorative video and speeches by some of the attendees, who looked back at the inauguration of the Sotavento Experimental Wind Farm by the current king of Spain, Felipe VI, 20 years ago and its beginnings “endorsed by the regional government in the early stages of wind energy” and mentioned the “partners invited to join the project: IDAE (a national agency for energy efficiency) and several companies that were developing wind energy projects in Galicia (Endesa, Iberdrola and Engasa). The first two own shares in Sotavento under Enel Green Power España, S.L. and Iberdrola Renovables Galicia, S.A.”

It was “… an innovative, uncertain and somehow ‘utopian’ project, since back in 2001 renewable energies, and particularly wind energy, were still in a very rudimentary stage”.

 

GOALS AND FEATURES OF SOTAVENTO

The goals of this Experimental Wind Farm were establishing a small-scale plant (17,56 MW) that would be able to finance itself by selling the energy produced to the electrical network and that could undertake further activities apart from those typical of a standard wind farm, such as:

• Showroom of wind energy technologies
• RDI project centre
• Centre for energy education and formation

In the past 20 years a number of projects have been carried out, some of them as significant as:

• Hydrogen production and storage system through wind energy: a project with two aims; on the one hand, hydrogen’s suitability for storing energy was considered as a system for energy and economic management of a wind farm; and on the other hand, the production of 100% renewable hydrogen was attempted via wind energy.
• Demonstrative bioclimatic house: designed and built with the aim of getting familiarized and experimenting with the basis of bioclimatic buildings. Besides, it doubles as an example of the different renewable energy solutions that can be implemented in a detached house, oriented towards increasing the comfort with minimum energy consumption. This house is also provided with a number of interactive touch screens that allow the visitors to have a look at the processes, interact with real-time and historic data and even calculate particular scenarios.

 

During these years Sotavento played as well a crucial role in energy education and social awareness by drawing up its own educational project in order to provide content and strengthen the educational and demonstrative nature of the Sotavento Experimental Wind Farm among all social classes.

As a result of such activities, Sotavento received so far over 270.000 visitors and more than 10 national and international awards.

 

Nowadays we can assert that Sotavento is a mature and solvent company that has become a national benchmark during the last 20 years regarding energy education.

During these 20 years Sotavento performed a successful work from two different points of view:

• technical, as a demonstration centre and a favourable environment to develop RDI projects;
• social, as an educational organization that encourages social awareness towards the energy scenario that awaits us, where such activities will become more and more crucial.

Sotavento looks forward to the future with optimism for several reasons:

• The company has successfully developed a unique nature that could now be called “Sotavento trademark”.
• It is planning the partial repowering of their wind generators, which will improve the company’s income statement and enhance the informative activities and its role as a technological showroom.
• The education in energy production is critical for future generations and Sotavento has become a tool for raising social awareness in a world where energy consumption will have to be responsible and sustainable.

Today we can state that the “utopian” project we started has become a reality and that we have achieved our goals. We are heading towards a renewable and sustainable future and Sotavento will surely be a part of it.