Equivalent to the consumption of about 50,000 households
Alstom, a world leader in the supply of equipment and services for power generation, and EDP Renewables (EDPR), the world's third largest company in the wind energy sector, have announced the signing of the provisional acceptance certificate for the Le Mee wind farm in the Central region of France, which will enter into force at the beginning of October 2010.
Le Mee is the third wind farm to be commissioned in less than a year in the Centro region using Alstom's latest ECO 100 wind turbine technology, which has a capacity of 3 MW. The 18 MW wind farm consists of six 3 MW ECO 100 Alstom wind turbines. In accordance with the terms of the contract, Alstom was responsible for supplying, installing and commissioning the turbines and will also be responsible for their operation and maintenance over the next two years.
Alstom also successfully commissioned two other ECO 100 wind farms in France: Le Vieux Moulin (6 ECO 100 turbines) and La Vallée du Moulin (10 ECO 100 turbines) and, in addition, there is a fourth park under construction called Pieces de Vigne (5 ECO 100 turbines). By the end of the year, Alstom will have installed and commissioned 27 ECO 100 wind turbines for EDPR in the Central region, representing a capacity of more than 80 MW, the equivalent of the consumption of about 50,000 homes, that is, the size of a city like Orleans.
By 2020, the French government plans to generate up to 23% of its electricity from renewable energy sources. In fact, wind power generation will stand out as one of the most important ways that will be developed to generate renewable energy. The French wind market is positioned as the seventh most important market in the world, both in terms of installed capacity and capacity added annually. In 2009, installed capacity reached 4.5 GW (onshore only). According to the objectives of the French law "Grenelle II", this figure must reach 25 GW, distributed in 19 GW of onshore wind energy and 6 GW of maritime wind.
"ECO 100 is a high-end wind turbine that is increasingly being used as a benchmark in the European wind industry and beyond," said Alfonso Faubel, Vice President of Alstom Wind. "The four contracts signed with EDPR in the Centre region demonstrate EDPR's continued confidence in Alstom's unparalleled technology and flagship product in the field of renewable energy. Alstom continues to research the new generation of wind turbines. The first ECO 110 unit was installed in November last year in Spain, and our 6 MW direct transmission maritime model is being developed very satisfactorily," added the Vice President.
Alstom's 3 MW ECO 100 and ECO 110 wind turbines belong to the company's ECO 100 platform, which represents a major breakthrough in terms of turbine power capacity and energy performance. The larger size of the propellers allows more power to be captured more effectively. This reduces the number of turbines and the surface area needed to generate the same amount of power that ECO 100 is capable of producing at medium to high wind speeds, while the ECO 110 wind turbine is designed to operate with slower wind flows, an aspect that is essential to ensure a wider integration of wind energy on a global scale. The low rotor speed of the platform directly translates into low noise emissions.
All Alstom wind turbines incorporate the unique ALSTOM PURE TORQUE* rotor support concept, which protects the gearbox and other transmission components from possible load deformations for increased reliability.
Alstom has installed or is in the process of installing more than 2,080 wind turbines in more than 110 wind farms around the world, representing a total capacity of more than 2,680 MW.
The latest wind contracts signed by Alstom highlight Alstom's ability to supply clean energy to a continuously growing market. In early September, the group announced it had received an order worth more than €200 million from Scottish Power Renewables (SPR) to carry out a 217 MW extension to the Whitelee wind farm in Scotland, where Alstom will install 69 ECO 100 wind turbines. This is a direct consequence of the great growth experienced in the European wind energy sector in just 15 years, as installed generation capacity has increased from 2.5 GM in 1995 to 74.8 GW at the end of 2009. The sector could reach an installed capacity of 230 GW by 2020*. At the end of September, Alstom was still growing in the wind sector and entered the Turkish energy market with a contract for the construction of a 24 MW wind farm, i.e. the installation of 8 ECO 100 turbines.
*Source: European Wind Energy Association
About Alstom
Alstom is a world leader in infrastructure for the generation and transmission of electrical energy and rail transport, and a benchmark in innovative and environmentally friendly technologies. Alstom builds the world's fastest trains and the highest capacity automatic metro. Alstom supplies integrated turnkey solutions for power plants, as well as associated services, for a wide variety of energy sources including hydro, nuclear, gas, coal and wind. Alstom also supplies a wide range of solutions for the transmission of electrical energy, with a special focus on smart grids. The Group has 96,500 employees in 70 countries and achieved sales of €23 billion (pro forma data) in 2009/2010. www.alstom.com/power
About EDP Renewables (EDPR)
EDP Renewables (Euronext: EDPR), with operational offices in Madrid, is a global leader in the renewable energy sector that designs, develops, manages and commissions power plants that generate electricity from renewable energy sources. With a strong line of development, premium assets and industry-leading operating capacity, EDPR has experienced extraordinary growth in recent years. Energias de Portugal, S.A. (EDP), the main shareholder of EDPR, is a vertically integrated services company with registered office in Lisbon (Portugal). Through the different business applications that constitute this company, EDP has a significant presence in the electricity and gas sector in Europe, Brazil and the United States. www.edprenovaveis.com
For more information:
Andrés López-Morancho, Alstom Spain - Tel.: +34 91 334 58 00/ +34 609 069 230; [email protected]. Gemma Soler, Alstom Power - Tel.: +34 93 474 88 00 / +34 619 892 083; [email protected] (EUROPA PRESS)
