Wind Energy Planning

It was announced this week that German wind turbine manufacturer Repower signed a deal with French utility EDF for the supply of wind turbines for five wind farms in Canada.

The framework agreement is for the supply of turbines totalling a capacity of 954 Megawatts for wind farms in Quebec, developed by Saint-Laurent Energies, a company part owned by EDF.

With a shortage of wind turbine supply across the globe still causing the wind energy industry problems, companies are seeking out framework deals with turbine manufacturers, sometimes even before they have planning consent. Framework deals have the benefit of providing more certainty, especially for financially marginal projects – even if overall the wind farm operator does not make significant savings.

Although there were 35 new Chinese wind turbine manufacturers entering the market last year, it will be some time until these turbines have been tested and proven in the European, US and Canadian marketplace. With the offshore wind energy market set to expand at unprecedented rates over the next few years, it seems that the global turbine supply shortage will not be remedied quickly.