January Small-Scale Wind Installations
Each month there are a certain number of wind energy projects which slip under our radar for being too small. They range in size up to 100 MW, and are inevitably skipped over by those of us who cover wind energy installations as not needing an article dedicated entirely to a 28 MW installation in some backwater county.
Of course, added up, these projects are the lifeblood of the wind energy industry, and so do deserve at least some attention. What follows are just a few of those I had to pass on at the time.
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Vestas Wind Systems announced in the middle of the month a 36 MW order in Poland. The project, to be located in the region of Lodzkie, will use 12 of Vestas’ V112-3.0 MW turbines, and is currently owned by a private Polish investor.
“We are proud to be chosen to supply turbines for this project,” said Klaus Steen Mortensen, President of Vestas Northern Europe. “With market-leading technology, Vestas seeks to maximize value for our customer through low cost of energy, business case certainty, and being easy-to-work-with.”
The contract includes delivery, installation, and commissioning of the turbines, which is expected to take place in the third or fourth quarter of 2015.
Voltalia SA, a French developer, commissioned the second wind farm in Areia Branca, Brazil — the 30 MW Terral wind farm, which is the second phase of the Areia Branca project. While the commissioning actually took place in December of 2014, the company didn’t make the announcement until the 15th of January.
“The launch of a second wind farm in Areia Branca (Brazil) marks the end of a year teeming with strategic, operational and financial achievements,” said Sébastien Clerc, Chief Executive Officer of Voltalia. “Since our listing on Euronext Paris, we have achieved many objectives and I would like to thank all our teams and partners for this.”
Siemens announced on January 22 a 48 MW order for the Alexander wind farm being developed in Rush, Kansas. Siemens will provide 21 wind turbines to NJR Clean Energy Ventures for the project, which is conveniently located near Siemens’ Hutchinson, Kansas, nacelle assembly plant.
“This order reinforces our commitment to local manufacturing in North America supporting our customers and the entire region,” said Thomas Richterich, CEO Onshore, Siemens Wind Power and Renewables Division. “This project has a special meaning, as the Alexander wind farm is just up the road from our nacelle assembly plant.”
Gamesa had a very successful January, with a number of small project announcements across the whole month. Three in particular deserve particular attention: The first of which is a 92 MW contract for two new contracts in China — one to supply 50 MW to Hebei Construction & Investment Group for the Nandianziliang wind complex located in the province of Shanxi, in northern China. The second is a 42 MW supply contract to Chinese wind farm developer UPC for the Huangyan wind farm in the province of Zhejiang, in eastern China.
The second, announced on January 16, is for the supply of 23 G97-2.0 MW to several customers in India, totaling 46 MW across three wind farms.
The third contract was announced just a few days ago, for the supply of 84 MW of wind turbines to the Iberdrola-Neoenergia consortium in Brazil. Three wind farms located in Rio Grande do Norte, in north-eastern Brazil, will receive G114-2.0 MW turbines — 15 at the Santana 1 wind farm, 15 at the Calango 6 wind farm, and 12 at the Santana 2 wind farm.
GE was picked to supply 151 MW of wind turbines to a project in China, being developed by the state-owned utility China Huaneng Corporation. GE will provide 55 GE 2.75-120 turbines to the Huaneng Dali Longquan project in Yunnan province in southern China.
This marks GE’s largest turbine order in China, bringing their total up to 1.2 GW of installed capacity in the country (compared to Gamesa’s 3.5 GW and Vestas’ 4.5 GW).
Two projects which weren’t confirmed, but were rumored, were acknowledged by Vestas earlier this month.
According to the company, “information in the market” existed concerning an offshore wind project in Belgium. Vestas confirmed that Nobelwind and MHI Vestas Offshore Wind have entered into a conditional agreement, which will see Vestas provide 50 V112-3.3 MW turbines to the 165 MW Nobelwind project.
Later in the month, Vestas confirmed that Statkraft and Vestas had signed a Letter of Intent which will see them supply wind turbines to the Fosen and Snillfjord/Hitra projects in Norway.
In both cases, Vestas will disclose a company announcement the moment firm and unconditional orders are confirmed.
Finally, Nordex announced that it had been awarded a contract by Fair Wind Power Partners to supply turbines to a wind project in Maryland in the northeast of the US. The project will be made up of 12 N100/2500 wind turbines which will be completed by September.
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