REpower lands windfarm contract in Turkey

KIRSEHIR PROVINCE, TURKEY - German turbine manufacturer REpower Systems AG has secured the largest European onshore windfarm contract to date for a windfarm in Turkey.

The company, which is majorityowned by Suzlon Energy Limited, will supply 44 turbines with a combined generation capacity of 148 megawatts MW to the Geycek windfarm in the Kirsehir province, east of Ankara. The deal was struck with Al Yel Elektrik, a subsidiary of French renewable power plant developer Akuo Energy SAS.

This is REpowers first contract in Turkey. The company will supply 44 of its 3.XM series turbines, each rated at 3.37 MW. In addition to the installation, REpower has been contracted to service and maintain the turbines for the first 12 years of operation.

Turkey is a wind market with huge potential experts are speaking of volumes of up to 20,000 MW, which has, however, barely been tapped so far, said Per Hornung Pedersen, CEO of REpower Systems, who believes this contract is an important first step to gaining more contracts in the country.

Turbines with a generating capacity of almost 1,000 MW are already in operation there, he added. In addition, the Turkish government has announced that it is going to revise the procedures for granting licenses and the remuneration system for renewable energies in 2010.

Eric Scotto, CEO of Akuo Energy, added: We are very proud to announce the beginning of the construction of our largest windfarm in Turkey. This project will be one of the largest in Europe this is a good start for us in a very promising country for the wind industry and the renewable energies, where we are established since 2005.

REpower and Akuo already have an existing relationship, following an agreement last month that will see REpower provide 25 wind turbines to three windfarms in ChampagneArdennes, in the northeastern region of France. The wind turbines, with a combined generation capacity of more than 51 MW, are the REpower MM92 models, each with a capacity of 2.05 MW.

Alongside wind, Akuo Energy develops solar, hydro, biomass, biogas and biofuels projects throughout Europe. The company currently operates 12 facilities, generating a total of 120.5 MW of power but is developing 100 projects with a total power generation capacity of almost 3 gigawatts GW. In 2010, it expects to develop 500 MW of renewable power and is planning to invest about 4.5 billion euros US $6.1 billion to help get it to 3 GW by 2014.