Technology

The Basque company, which plans to deliver the prototype in 2012, has reached an agreement with E.ON to also supply the German utility onshore turbines (with a combined capacity of 30 MW), including a 4.5-megawatt machine. Gamesa is currently designing and developing two families of offshore turbines (G11X-5.0, and G14X with a capacity of 6-7 MW), both of which are “based on proven technology that was validated in the G10X-4.5 MW turbine”, says Gamesa. The company reveals that the prototypes of the G11X-5.0 MW platform will be tested in the last quarter of 2012, and the pre-series will be ready in 2013.

The agreement also includes the installation of one, and possibly two, Gamesa G128-4.5 MW wind turbine(s) for an E.ON site in Europe. Gamesa will be responsible for transporting, installing and commissioning the turbine(s) in 2012. It will also install G9X-2.0 MW wind turbines with a total capacity of more than 30 MW on a wind farm being constructed by the German power company in Alcamo (Sicily). Gamesa will undertake the transport, installation and commissioning in 2011.

Meanwhile, the Basque company is developing the G11X-5.0 MW turbine platform together with the Northrop Grumman Corporation, America's largest shipbuilder, as well as a generation of larger capacity offshore turbines, specifically the G14X (6-7 MW per unit); “the pre-series [of which] could be ready in 2014”.

Elsewhere, Gamesa, Alstom and Acciona recently announced they had reserved space at the Zèfir offshore wind energy test station planned off the coast of Tarragona. The Zèfir Test Station in being developed by the Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC).

For additional information:
www.gamesa.es