EDF Commissions Windfarms in Italy and Belgium

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--EDF Energies Nouvelles SA (EPA:EEN) (Paris, France), part of Electricite de France (EPA:EDF) (Paris), has commissioned new windfarms in Belgium and Italy. The company has announced the commissioning of the first 30-megawatt (MW) section of the large Thornton Bank offshore windfarm, located 28 kilometers off the Belgian coast near Zeebrugge. At the same time, the company has revealed that commissioning has started at the 32-MW Minervino windfarm in the Bari province of the Apulia region of southern Italy.

At Thornton Bank, six high-power 5-MW wind turbines have been installed off the coast of Zeebrugge on the Thornton Bank sandbank. This is a key step for Belgium's first offshore windfarm, which when completed and connected to the grid in 2013, will have a capacity of 300 MW and will be one of Europe's largest offshore farms. In real terms, the farm will produce enough electricity for 600,000 people and reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by about 450,000 tons.

REpower Systems AG (ETR:RPW) (Hamburg, Germany) successfully installed the first 5-MW wind energy turbine at the windfarm last July. Gravity-based foundations were erected and carried out to sea to form the foundation for the first six wind turbines in Thornton Bank. The work at sea was performed at a water depth of approximately 25 meters using jack-up drilling platforms. For additional information, see related news item from November 14, 2008 - Belgian Offshore Windfarm to Supply 300 Megawatts to Grid by 2012.

EDF Energies Nouvelles is part of the C-Power consortium of companies that own and operate Thornton Bank and which also includes DEME (Antwerp, Belgium), Societe Regionale d'Investissement de Wallonie (Liege, Belgium), Socofe (Liege) and Nuhma (Limburg, Belgium).

The windfarm in Minervino comprises 16 turbines supplied by REpower. The facility is held jointly by EDF EN Italia, a 95%-owned subsidiary of EDF Energies Nouvelles with Fri-El Green Power, a local partner. This is the fifth Italian project completed by EDF in the wind energy segment. To date, the company has commissioned 266.1 MW in gross wind energy capacity in Italy.

Last month, EDF Energies Nouvelles emerged as the white knight that helped save Italy's largest planned wind project, the 98.9-MW Monte Grighine windfarm, located in the western part of Sardinia. EDF took a 50% stake, worth 63 million euros ($86 million), in the facility from Danish wind energy outfit Greentech Energy Systems A/S (CPH:GES) (Herlev). The troubled windfarm began construction in 2007 but has suffered numerous delays and financial problems. Commissioning will start this year and the facility will use 43 Nordex wind turbines. For additional information, see related news item from May 20, 2009 - Italy's Largest Windfarm Gets Financial Lifeline.

IIR's Renewable Energy Database provides extensive coverage on the Wind Energy, Geothermal, Hydroelectric, Landfill Gas-to-Energy and Utility-Scale Solar power plants throughout North America, and now expanding coverage across the world.

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