Bizkaia Energia

The original design for the project proposed a cooling system using water supplied by the Arriandi water treatment plant. However, on analysing and weighing up the allegations presented in the name of the townspeople during the public information phase of the Environmental Impact Assessment two concerns of the local residents were identified:
- The consumption of water for the cooling system
- The possible creation of mist associated with the above cooling system.
Consequently, and in keeping with the commitment made to Amorebieta-Etxano, BIZKAIA ENERGÍA has modified the original design of the project and will use air-cooling. Although involving a higher cost, this change follows from our desire to satisfy the demands of local residents by eliminating the problem of water consumption and the creation of mist.

It should be pointed out in the first place that the main function of a gas turbine Combined Cycle Plant (CCP) is to turn natural gas into electricity.
It is called combined cycle precisely because it "combines" the heat generation cycles of a gas turbine with those of a steam one, thus contributing to greater energy efficiency with a lower gas consumption.
The Plant uses natural gas as the fuel for a gas turbine, an industrial version of the engines one sees on jet aircraft. The turning of this engine generates electricity and, in addition, the heat given off by the gas turbine is passed to a boiler that produces steam used in the steam turbine that drives the generator to produce yet more electricity.
We call this two-stage operation a Combined Cycle, and the technology is very efficient since, for the same input of energy, it generates over a third more electricity than a thermal power station.