December Wind Blows in the Right Direction for Vestas.

Typography
If one company’s sales are a bellwether for the industry then the wind energy industry is set for years of solid growth. Vestas Wind Systems, of Randers, Denmark, with a 28 percent market share and more than 33,500 wind turbines in service worldwide, is the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturer.

If one company’s sales are a bellwether for the industry then the wind energy industry is set for years of solid growth.

Vestas Wind Systems, of Randers, Denmark, with a 28 percent market share and more than 33,500 wind turbines in service worldwide, is the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturer.

In 2006, the company delivered turbines with a total capacity of 4,239 megawatts – an increase of 1,054 megawatts or 33 per cent over the prior year. In spite of this increase, Vestas’ market share remained unchanged at the end of the year: Meaning everyone else is growing at roughly the same rate.

Vestas expects that the present wind power share of about one per cent of global power consumption will grow to at least 10 percent by 2020. The targets for renewable power in the EU and China will account for 20 percent and 15 per cent, respectively, in 2020, and the USA is expected to adopt similar targets. These targets mean that installed capacity is set to rise from 75,000 megawatts in 2006 to at least 1,000,000 megawatts in 2020, which translates into annual growth of more than 20 percent.

Vestas doesn’t announce all of its sales, usually just significant orders, but all of the following came in the last month of 2007 making December a particularly good month for the company:

--- AES Corporation, of Arlington, Virginia, ordered 52, V90 series 3.0 megawatt turbines for use in an unspecified project. The contract with Vestas includes delivery, installation and commissioning of the turbines, as well as a five-year service and maintenance agreement.

Delivery is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2008, with the project expected to be complete by the end of the following year.

AES is a worldwide developer of power projects of all kinds. The company entered the wind generation business in 2004, and now operates 1,000 MW of wind projects with another 4000 megawatts in the development pipeline.

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Total nameplate capacity for this order - 156 megawatts.

--- UrbaenergÃŒa S.L., a subsidiary of the ACS/Cobra Group, ordered 32, V90 series 2.0 MW turbines for two projects in Spain. Twenty turbines will be for the Sierra de las Carbas project in the province of Zamora, and twelve will go to the Sargentes project in the province of Burgos. The order includes supply, installation, commissioning, and a five-year service contract.

Delivery of the turbines is scheduled to start in September 2008 and March 2009, for the Sargentes and Sierra de las Carbas projects, respectively. Commissioning is expected in February and September 2009, respectively.

Total nameplate capacity for this order - 64 megawatts.

--- From an undisclosed purchaser Vestas received an order for 36 turbines; 26, V90 series 2.0 megawatt units; and 10, V90 series 1.8 megawatt. The turbines will be for projects in Spain; Pujalt in Pujalt,Barcelona province and the Turo del Magre wind power plant stradled between San Guim de Freixenet, Lerida province, and Montmaneu, Barcelona province.

The two wind facilities will be the first established by Vestas in the Catalonia region of Spain. The region has a total installed capacity of 225 megawatts with a target of 1,000 megawatts planned for installation by 2010.

Delivery of the wind turbines is scheduled to start in December 2008 for the Pujalt project and in June 2009 for the Turo del Magre project. Commissioning is expected in July and December 2009, respectively.

Total nameplate capacity for this order - 70 megawatts.

 

--- Horizon Wind Energy, of Houston, Texas, placed an order for 242, V82 series 1.65 megawatt turbines scheduled for installation in various Horizon-owned wind projects in the US.

Vestas will supply and commission the turbines, and includes a five-year service and maintenance agreement. Delivery is expected to begin at the end of 2008 and will continue through 2009.

Horizon Wind Energy is a fully owned subsidiary of Portuguese utility Energias de Portugal, S.A. By the end of 2007, Horizon will have developed more than 2,200 megawatts of wind capacity and will be operating wind power plants with a total installed capacity of over 1,500 MW. Horizon has another 10,500 megawatts in over a dozen states in its development pipeline.

Total nameplate capacity for this order - 400 megawatts.

 

--- Duke Energy, of Charlotte, North Carolina, ordered 55, V82 series 1.65 megawatt turbines for the first phase of its Notrees Windpower project, located in Ector and Winkler counties in Texas.

Duke Energy, an electric and gas utility, has more than 1,000 megawatts of wind assets under development in the Western and Southwestern USA, including Texas and Wyoming.

Vestas will supply and commission the 55 wind turbines and provide service and maintenance for three years. The turbines are scheduled for delivery in the second half of 2008, and commissioning is expected to be completed at the end of 2008.

Total nameplate capacity for this order - 91 megawatts.

 

--- EarthFirst Canada, of Victoria, British Columbia, placed an order for 48, V90 series 3.0 megawatt turbines for its 144 megawatt Dokie Ridge project.

Dokie Ridge will be built in the Rocky Mountain foothills of the Peace River region in the northeastern part of the province of British Columbia, Canada.

Vestas will supply and commission the wind turbines, and delivery will begin in the first half of 2008 with commissioning expected to be completed in 2009. The order also includes a five-year service and maintenance agreement.

The Dokie Ridge project is expected to be the first wind power project installed in British Columbia, which has, as its goal, the acquisition of 90 per cent of its electricity generation from clean or renewable sources of energy.

Total nameplate capacity for this order - 144 megawatts.

 

--- Minerva, a project company of Alerion Energie Rinnovabili of Milano, Italy, ordered 27, V52 series, 850 kilowatt turbines for its project Castel di Lucio, near Messina in Sicily. The contract includes supply, installation, commissioning and a five-year service and availability agreement.

Delivery is scheduled to start in October 2008, and the project completed by March 2009.

Total nameplate capacity for this order - 23 megawatts.

 

All together, all orders, that’s 948 megawatts in turbine capacity ordered from one company in one month. It wasn’t too long ago when 948 megawatts was the entire industrywide, worldwide capacity built in one year.

The company calls itself No.1 in Modern Energy. Modern energy is precisely what wind energy is and will continue to be for some time to come.