World Wind Watch | Green Energy News

January 15, 2006 – Vol.10 No.43

WORLD WIND WATCH.

The renewable energy business, including wind energy, is about avoiding conventional energy. On a kilowatt-by-kilowatt, megawatt-by-megawatt basis every turbine that’s planted in the ground will avoid building more fossil fuel power generation capacity.

Vestas continues to sign agreements for more turbines that will eventually be delivered, plugged-in and used to reduce the amount of conventional power capacity that would have been built otherwise.

Horizon Wind Energy, (formerly Zilkha Renewable Energy) of Houston, Texas will exercise an option agreed to in December 2005 and has formally ordered 200 megawatts of wind turbine capacity to be delivered in 2007 for projects in the U.S. Horizon has more than 5000 megawatts of wind capacity either operating or in various stages of development.

Vestas, too, has received another order for Germany. The company will deliver 58 megawatts of wind capacity to WKN Windkraft Nord AG for installation in Brandenburg and Lower Saxony. Early in January Vestas received an order for more than 102 megawatts capacity for delivery in that country.

Further. to make inroads into the obvious Chinese market, Vestas has decided to build a nacelle and hub factory there. The new facility will be an extension of the blade factory already being built.

The hub and nacelle factory will employ about 225 people and be able to build about 350 units per year. China has a requirement that 70 percent of the value of each turbine used in the country be locally produced. The site was chosen in part because it’s near port facilities. Think Made-in-China Vestas wind turbines.

GE Energy has taken an order for 85 megawatts of wind turbine capacity for three projects in Japan. The order will comprise of 34, 2.5-megawatt machines that will be installed and commissioned in 2006 and 7.

And, Gamesa will build the largest wind power project to date within the Kyoto Protocol. The 200-megawatt facility registered as a greenhouse gas reduction project will begin construction this year in Oxaca, Mexico.

Visit Vestas at http://www.vestas.com/ , GE at http://www.gewind.com/ and Gamesa at http://www.gamesa.es/