A town of wind turbines in the Atacama Desert – STRABAG has completed the foundations for 248 towers

Over a four-year period, the team behind STRABAG Chile in the northern part of the country, in the Atacama Desert, has completed three large-scale wind farm projects. During the projects, foundations were laid for a total of 248 wind turbines across an area of 215 square kilometres, in one of the driest regions in the world.

The company has also made this extraordinary project available in video format on its Facebook page.

Immense dimensions and impressive technical performance

The wind farms created as a result of these projects generate a total of 1,501 megawatts of clean energy, which is enough to power around 1.5 million households.

The scale of the project is clearly illustrated by the fact that during construction

• 135,000 cubic metres of concrete were used,
• 17,000 tonnes of steel were used,
• 7.32 million cubic metres of earthworks were carried out,
• and 240 kilometres of new roads were built in the desert environment.

One of the biggest challenges of the project was the extreme weather and logistical conditions.

The water supply was one of the biggest challenges

In the Atacama Desert, the water required for the construction work had to be transported to the site from a distance of up to 180 kilometres. In the world’s driest desert, this presented a particularly complex logistical challenge.

At the same time, these projects clearly demonstrate that, with the right engineering expertise, organisation and coordinated teamwork, even the greatest challenges can be overcome, whilst also contributing to the increasingly urgent energy transition.