Siemens Wins '350 Million Turbine Deal at Clyde Windfarm

Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, TX) reports that Siemens (Munich, Germany) and Airtricity (Dublin, Ireland), the renewable energy arm of Scottish and Southern Energy plc (Perth, Scotland) have signed a deal worth an estimated ?350 million ($512 million) for the supply of wind turbines to the Clyde windfarm in South Lanarkshire, 70 km south of Glasgow.

Siemens will begin supplying the 2.3 MW turbines to the Clyde windfarm soon, as pre-construction nears completion. With a capacity of 350 MW, Clyde could be one of Europe's largest onshore windfarms within two years. The facility is expected to be commissioned in 2012 and will employ 30 full-time staff.

Siemens has been contracted for the delivery, installation and commissioning of the wind turbines. Siemens will also assume responsibility for operation and maintenance for an initial period of five years. Following agreement on a primary radar mitigation scheme in July, discussions are progressing on the secondary radar issues.

Clyde is expected to have a load factor of about 35 percent and produce more than 1,000 GW hours of electricity annually. The overall cost of the project is expected to be ?545 million. "The agreement for the Clyde project once again shows the high level of confidence placed in the proven Siemens wind turbine technology," said Andreas Nauen, CEO of the Siemens Wind Power Business Unit. "Following our successful completion of the Scottish Whitelee windfarm earlier this summer (at 322 MW), Europe's largest windfarm to date, Clyde, marks a new milestone for onshore wind power in Europe."

Siemens and Airtricity are already working together on a number of ongoing wind projects. They are cooperating on the Butendiek offshore windfarm in the German North Sea. The offshore project, with a capacity of 288 MW, will be commissioned in 2012 and is using 80 Siemens turbines of 3.6 MW each. Siemens is also supplying 140 wind turbines of 3.6 MW each for the Greater Gabbard project, where construction is under way.

Siemens provides turbines for ScottishPower Renewables' (Glasgow, Scotland) Whitelee windfarm, which opened earlier this year. The windfarm has an initial capacity of 322 MW, but there are already plans to almost double this output to 600 MW.