REpower Installs Three 6-Megawatt Wind Turbines on Danish-German Border

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--REpower Systems AG (FRA:RPW) (Hamburg, Germany), a leading producer of onshore and offshore wind turbines, recently completed the installation of three 6M-series wind turbines at the Westre windfarm in Germany near the German-Danish border. Each rotor is 126 meters in diameter, which makes the unit one of the largest functional turbines in the world. Each turbine has a power generation capacity of 6 megawatts (MW).

The onshore windfarm, owned by Grenzstrom Vindtved GmbH & Company KG (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany), consists only of REpower's turbines. The turbines will be deployed offshore upon completion of a comprehensive testing and certification program at the windfarm.

The nacelles were produced at REpower's manufacturing facility in Bremerhaven, from where they were shipped more than 150 kilometers to Dagebull in Schleswig-Holstein and later transported in trucks for about 30 kilometers to the windfarm. The rotor blades, each spanning 61.5 meters in length, were transported by road from Denmark. Cranes with a boom height of 132 meters were used to install the turbines, as the total hub height of each turbine after erection was about 100 meters. The rotors are designed to generate electricity only when the winds are blowing at a speed of at least 12.6 kilometers per hour.

REpower produced the commercially successful 5Mseries in 2005, the world's largest wind turbine at that time, with a rated power output of 5 MW. REpower has completed 17 installations of the 5M series to date. The technology adopted in the 6M series is similar to that used in the 5M series. The 6M turbines are also similar in dimension to the 5M series of turbines and can also be used in upcoming 5M projects. The Bremerhaven facility is capable of manufacturing and shipping about 80 nacelles and hubs annually.

REpower recently entered into a framework agreement with RWE Innogy GmbH (Essen, Germany), a subsidiary of utility group RWE AG (FRA:RWE) (Essen), for 250 5M/6M wind turbines for the proposed offshore Innogy Nordsee 1 windfarm. The $2.6 billion deal is considered one of the largest wind energy contracts awarded to date. REpower will initially supply 30 units of the offshore 5M series as early as 2011, followed by the delivery of more units from 2012 to 2015. The windfarm, to be located about 40 kilometers off the East Frisian island of Juist, will be capable of generating 1,000 MW of power.

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