Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Deformational behaviour of pyroclastic rocks beneath the upper
reservoir of the hydro-wind plant at el hierro
M.R. Martín-Gómez, F. Fernández-Baniela & J.J. arribas-Pérez de obanos
IDOM Internacional Geotechnical Department, S.A., Madrid, Spain
a. soriano
Universidad Politécnica, Madrid, Spain
aBsTRacT: el hierro hydro-wind Plant is a singular project, as its aim is to make the island energy
self-sufficient. it involves constructing two reservoirs—the higher of which began being constructed in
september 2009. This article attempts to reflect the peculiarity of the behaviour of the materials at the
bottom of this reservoir, which will have to support a significant hydrostatic load, and the difficulty of
characterising these in laboratories and design offices in order to assign geotechnical parameters to them
which will reflect their geotechnical performance in situ. The studies undertaken to achieve this character-
isation are described and the expected settlement of the materials is analysed. Finally, the article describes
in detail the ground treatment proposed in order to minimize settlements, whose estimated values are
compared with those obtained at the works site.
1
DescRiPTion oF The “el hieRRo
hYDRo-WinD PlanT” PRoJecT
the “Pico de los espárragos”, which will produce
a total power output of 11.5 MW,
- The pumping and turbine stations, located next
to the lower reservoir,
- The pressure pipes which will connect the upper
reservoir with the hydro-plants,
- and an electrical sub-station interconnecting
the hydraulic plants and the wind generators.
consists in using wind energy (1) to pump water
from the lower reservoir (2) to the upper reservoir
(3), making use of the turbines (4) to generate
Before very long, the canary island known as el
hierro will become the first place in the world
capable of being self-sufficient in electricity from
renewable sources of energy.
in order to achieve this, the Regional Govern-
ment of el hierro (cabildo de el hierro), Unelco
s.a. and iTc (the Technical institute of the
canary islands), which together form the company
“GoRona Del VienTo”, planned the project
“aprovechamiento hidroeólico de el hierro”,
which was presented on the 28th of February 2007,
and whose detailed engineering was commissioned
to ingeniería idom internacional, s.a.
The project covers the design, development,
construction and start-up of a hydro-wind system
formed by:
- Two water reservoirs constructed at diferent
heights: the upper one will be located in the area
known as “la caldera”, with the maximum water
level at el. 713.90 m and an active storage esti-
mated at 556,000 m
3
; the lower reservoir will be
constructed by means of a closing dyke which will
make use of a stream bed close to the location of
the existing diesel plant at llanos Blancos, and
will have a maximum water level at el. 56.50 m and
an active storage of 200,000 m
3
of water.
- a wind power park consisting of ive wind gen-
erators with the latest technologies, located on
Figure 1.
sketch of the workings of the hydro-wind
plant.
