Delivering European wind industry intelligence
Good morning Please find below a snapshot of the key stories and developments currently being discussed in the European press.US claims victory over 'unfair' Chinese wind power grants The European wind energy industry has urged China to accelerate efforts to end unfair practices that favour its domestic industry, after it was revealed that the superpower has agreed to stop offering grants to companies that favour domestic component manufacturers, reports The Guardian, syndicating a story from BusinessGreen. US Trade Representative Ron Kirk announced on Monday that China has agreed to close a fund offering grants of between $6.7m and $22.5m to Chinese wind turbine manufacturers if they agree to use key parts and components made domestically rather than purchase imports. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/08/us-chinese-wind-power-grants Alstom eyes five French sites to build 6MW wind turbine Alstom is considering five French ports as a location for a factory to build its new 6MW direct-drive turbine, reports Terry Slavin at ReCharge. Last week, French Energy Minister Eric Besson said the long-delayed 3GW offshore round will be published early next month. The proposed wind farms are slated to be built at five sites between Saint-Nazaire and Dieppe. http://www.rechargenews.com/energy/wind/article260516.ece Siemens brings 6MW offshore turbine to life Siemens has sparked its next-generation 6MW direct drive offshore turbine into life at an onshore location in Denmark, reports ReNews. Testing will run through 2011 with additional prototypes due to be erected. Pre-series machines will be installed during 2012 and 2013 with serial production planned for 2014. http://renews.biz/story.php?page_id=70&news_id=343 Vermont Utility Picks Vestas Wind Turbines to Lower Energy Cost Green Mountain Power Corp., a Vermont utility, will use turbines from Vestas Wind Systems A/S for a 63-megawatt wind farm, reports Andrew Herne at Bloomberg. Green Mountain will install Vestas’ V112 model 3-megawatt turbines at its Kingdom Community Wind project in Lowell, the Colchester, Vermont-based utility said today in a statement. That will lower the project’s levelized cost of energy to 9.2 cents a kilowatt-hour, from a projected 10.3 cents that it would have achieved with other turbines it had considered. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-06/vermont-utility-picks-vestas-wind-turbines-to-lower-energy-cost.html Inch Cape wind farm future 'secured' by £1m investment An offshore wind farm off the Angus coast has been awarded £1m of investment from the Crown Estate, reports the BBC. The future of the Inch Cape site had been in doubt after the consortium initially awarded the lease was broken up. But the Crown Estate said a new agreement with Aberdeen-based SeaEnergy Renewables Inch Cape Limited (Sericl) "secured the future" of the project. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-13667830 Wind Watch The news that China has agreed to suspend its favourable incentives for domestic manufacturers that only utilise the country’s internal supply chain for components, sounds like good news for global wind businesses looking to secure a foothold in the market. It may even be a sign that the Chinese market, having established a good momentum, feels secure enough to open its doors to the outside world. After all, external automotive manufacturers looking to set up in China have to agree to either a joint venture, or a 50% sharing of technology. Initially many big manufacturers baulked at the idea, but now foreign car companies hold 85% of the Chinese domestic market. So whilst many of the big European and US component suppliers may still be pushing for a further opening of the Chinese renewable industry, to hold out for too long may risk being left behind. At a seminar this week on the onshore supply chain, organised by DECC and RenewableUK and hosted at law firm Hogan Lovells, there were a number of success stories presented by Mabey Bridge, David Brown, Converteam and SEM that reminded attendees that UK suppliers can play with the best in the global markets. In light of today’s development, there is every reason to ensure these businesses continue to have the support of the UK Government to assist them in securing Chinese contracts. Indeed , Ian Farquar, Managing Director, Wind Energy Business at David Brown highlighted a joint venture with a Chinese partner for gearbox production, whilst Steve Jackson, Head of Sales at SEM, highlighted the range of Chinese language materials and bi-lingual spokespeople it had at its disposal to also develop leads in China. With the coalition determined to be business friendly, if not necessarily providing the greenest commitments, supporting examples like those above should be a priority. Some attendees, however, were still keen to sound a note of caution that it wouldn’t all be plain sailing, and that there are still some key assurances needed from the Government. Charles Hendry, the Minister in attendance, highlighted the Government’s ambition to remove non-financial barriers, and provide long term perspectives for future ambitions beyond 2020, which were well received. Jim Feeney from UKTI also highlighted overseas markets that are certainly worthy of consideration to UK businesses. Give us the tools and we’ll finish the job, a famous wartime Prime Minister once said. The same perhaps ought to be ascribed to what has the potential to be a real contributor to UK PLC. All the best 
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