World Wind Watch | Green Energy News

October 15, 2006 – Vol.11 No.30

WORLD WIND WATCH.

Airtricity of Dublin, Ireland has in inventory 500 megawatts in turbine capacity ready and waiting to be planted. Buying up turbines when they were available (now that there is a shortage) was a good move for the company: they have them when others don’t.

One way to find homes for the turbines is to buy up wind energy developers, and the company has done just that. Airtricity has announced it has purchased Gale Force Energy, a Toronto-based wind farm developer.

Gale Force has more than 30 development projects in 8 provinces in Canada that together, if built, would generate 4000 megawatts of power. Now with turbines at hand some of those projects can be pushed forward. Airtricity now operates wind farms in Ireland, Scotland and the United States. Visit Airtricity at http://www.airtricity.com/ and Gale Force Energy http://www.galeforceenergy.com/

AES Corporation of Arlington, Virginia has more than 600 megawatts of wind energy now operating or being managed, more than 200 megawatts under construction and another 3000 megawatts in the development pipeline.

To add to its wind portfolio the company has purchased a minority interest in InnoVent SAS, a French wind farm developer that has more than 600 megawatts of wind projects in development in France. AES has also purchased a minority stake in the 120-megawatt Kavarna wind project in Bulgaria. That project is set to go online in 2008. Visit AES at http://www.aes.com/

Just two years ago Seimens wasn’t in the wind energy business. Now, like other turbine makers, business is good.

The company has received an order for 140, 2.3-megawatt turbines to be installed at the Whitelee Wind Farm project to be built near Glasgow, Scotland. The 322-megawatt project by Scottish Power will be the largest onshore project in Europe and the largest single order for Siemens to date. Visit Siemens Power Generation at http://www.powergeneration.siemens.com/

The largest turbine built in Japan is a 2.4 megawatt model built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Like all large scale, megawatt class, utility grade turbines it’s big: a tower height of 230 feet (70 meters) and a rotor diameter of 300 feet (92 meters).

The company has recently received an order for 42 of these flagship turbines from PPM Energy of the US for an unspecified project. It will be Mitsubishi’s the first order for the turbine. Visit Mitsubishi Heavy Industries at http://www.mhi.co.jp