How many engineering firms can claim to have designed more than a hundred wind farms in thirty-odd countries and also as many solar-energy plants? Such extensive experience has enabled us to solve a great many limitations and conditioning factors imposed by turbine manufacturers, providing the most efficient solutions possible based on local logistics, standards and resources. Going beyond the geometrical design of tracks and access routes from roads, hydrology and drainage studies, pavements and coordinating with other disciplines are all key factors in achieving a good design.

What are the factors that actually condition a good civil and electrical project for a plant? There are probably three parameters that can give us a good idea: (i) the length of the tracks, i.e., how long the cables that need to be installed are can have a major impact on budgets; (ii) offsetting earth, especially depending on the site and the availability of earth or landfills; and, of course, (iii) properly optimising the actual pavements that are going to be used. By controlling these and certain other variables and coming up with an ad hoc design in view of the conditioning factors on implementation, an optimal design can be achieved for any type of wind farm or solar plant.

From our point of view, it is essential to have a multidisciplinary team to be assigned to tackle such jobs, from laying out the electrical part, via the geotechnics, to the structures themselves. And all this must be coordinated using management systems such as BIM, to coordinate between different suppliers, deal with any conflicts, and provide a great tool for operations.