World Wind Watch | Green Energy News

May 21, 2006 – Vol.11 No.9

WORLD WIND WATCH.

PPM Energy now has more than 1700 megawatts of wind capacity in operation or under construction, and the company is planning to build more. By 2010 PPM now says it would like to have 3500 megawatts capacity either developed or under its control.

And they’re well on their way. PPM has secured orders from four turbine suppliers - Vestas, Mitsubishi, Seimens Power Generation, and General Electric - for 875 megawatts in turbine capacity. All of the turbines are to be delivered in 2006 and 2007. The orders are on top of the 500 megawatts of turbine capacity already placed with General Electric also set to be delivered this year and next.

The company didn’t put a price tag on its recent purchase but utility grade wind turbines generally sell for about a million dollars per megawatt.

PPM has 362 megawatts of wind capacity on the calendar for completion in 2006: the 200-megawatt Big Horn Wind Project in Washington state, the newly announced 100-megawatt Leaning Juniper Wind Project in Oregon and a 62-megawatt expansion of the Maple Ridge Wind Farm in New York State. Further, the company has announced the first project to be complete in 2007 - the 75-megawatt Twin Buttes Wind Farm in Colorado.

PPM Energy is a division of ScottishPower and sells most of its energy on the wholesale market in long term contracts. Visit PPM at http://www.ppmenergy.com/

Fifteen years ago a wind turbine with an output capacity of a couple hundred kilowatts would have been considered large. Now 5-megawatts is large, 1.5 megawatts is ordinary and 200-kilowatts, is, well, medium. The major players, GE, Vestas, Gamesa no longer want to deal with medium machines. However, Enercon still makes a 330-kilowatt machine knowing that somewhere on the planet that’s all that’s needed.

To help fill the gap between small wind turbines (100 kilowatts or less) and grid scale machines of 850-kilowatts and up, Windbrokers BV of The Netherlands has been supplying used and rebuilt mid-sized turbines. Now the company wants to sell brand-new mid-sized generators and has entered into an agreement with Vestas RRB India to sell new, older generation, but upgraded, Vestas turbines now manufactured in India.

The target market for 225 , 500 and 600 kilowatt turbines will be Europe, North and South America. The turbines will be built in RRB India’s new plant in Chennai India. Visit Vesta RRB at http://www.vestasrrb.com Windbrokers at http://www.windbrokers.com/