On its construction site at Diaz, outside Lüderitz, InnoVent assembled two tower sections, the nacelle, the 6 MW generator, the rotor, and two of the three 82-meter blades using only a 500-ton crane, at a height of just 35 meters.
The innovation lies in the next step: lifting the entire assembly and sliding additional tower sections underneath it, one by one, until reaching the final height of 100 meters.
This system could even allow additional sections to be added, reaching heights of up to 180 meters if required.
The goal is to enable wind turbine installation in extremely windy locations using 500-ton cranes, standard, widely available equipment, instead of relying on 900-ton (or larger) cranes, which are far more expensive and much harder to source.
A concept that is simple in principle, yet opens new possibilities for wind turbine installation in challenging environments.
Construction is going full speed at InnoVent’s 44MW Diaz Wind Farm just outside Lüderitz, with the plant earmarked to be commissioned in August 2026.
Seven turbines with a capacity of 6 MW each are currently being assembled. In total the Diaz Wind Farm will have a rated capacity of 50MW, which will represent over 200GWh/year, equivalent to the consumption of 40,000 households. This represents about 6% of Namibia’s current electricity consumption.
The wind farm is located in the Tsau // Khaeb National Park (formerly Sperrgebiet).
Diaz will be the largest single wind plant built by InnoVent so far. The group has built more than 500MW of wind turbines throughout the world to date. Its largest wind farms are those at Buire-le-Sec in France, with a capacity of 36 MW, and the largest built by InnoVent in Africa is the one in Morocco, with a capacity of 35.6 MW. This wind farm in Morocco also boasts the tallest wind turbine in Africa.
The Diaz Wind Farm has been described as a “next generation” wind farm.
