Gamesa is strengthening its presence in China by breaking ground on its fifth manufacturing plant in the Asian country, in the city of Da’an in the province of Jilin (northwest China), one of the country’s leading wind energy regions. The factory, scheduled to begin operating in 2011, will manufacture G8X-2.0 megawatt wind turbines and have a production capacity of 500 MW per year.
Gamesa's presence in China dates to 2000, though it is in the past five years that the company has stepped up expansion of its manufacturing base and wind farm development business there. In 2009, China accounted for 15 percent of the total MW sold worldwide.
“Gamesa is one of the main investors in the wind power industry in China. The groundbreaking on our new facility strengthens Gamesa global position and it represents a great opportunity to keep involving in the China wind industry expansion and serving our clients in the province that the government has targeted to have the highest wind power capacity in all of China”, said Jorge Calvet, chairman of Gamesa.
The company currently has four manufacturing plants (for blades, generators, and nacelle and gearbox assembly) in the province of Tianjin, which employ 1,000 people.
The company has installed a total of 2,000 of its Gamesa G5X-850 kW turbines in China in over 60 locations. It began industrial production of the Gamesa G8X-2.0 MW model in 2010; adding a total of 400 MW of new capacity to bring its total manufacturing capacity in China to 1,000 MW per year. Thanks to the new Jilin factory, Gamesa’s manufacturing capacity in China will rise to 1,500 MW in one year.
As for its wind farm development business in China, Gamesa has a pipeline of wind farm projects totaling 2,400 MW at varying stages of development. In the past year, the company has been involved in the wind industry expansion encouraged by the Chinese government and its main customers, signing agreements with local companies to jointly develop wind farms with total capacity of more than 700 MW in the Chinese provinces which are most promising for the potential growth of wind energy. Gamesa and its partner, China Guangdong Nuclear Wind, in early 2010 brought their first wind farm (49.3 MW) on stream at Taipingshan, in Shandong province. Moreover Gamesa is building five wind farms, with more than 200 MW.
The world’s largest wind energy market in 2009
China in 2009 became the world’s fastest-growing wind energy market, nearly doubling its installed capacity in wind from 12.1 GW to 25.1 GW in just a year.
In addition, 1,270 MW of new installed capacity in India, together with wind assets in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, made Asia the world’s largest wind energy market in 2009, with more than 14 GW of new capacity.
In this context, Jilin province represents 9 percent of China’s wind energy market, but will account for more than 39 percent by 2020. In Da’an, site of the new Gamesa factory, two new wind farm projects totaling 4,600 MW of installed capacity are planned.
China’s wind market offers significant growth potential given the size of the market, Chinese authorities' concerns about pollution and other environmental problems, and its implementation of a renewable energy plan. This program may be strengthened in the government's next five-year plan, which may boost the initial target calling for renewable energies to account for 15 percent of all energy usage by 2020.
About Gamesa
Over 15 years of experience in energy technologies, primarily wind, Gamesa is No. 1 in wind turbine design, manufacturing, installation and maintenance in Spain, and one of the largest in the world. Gamesa has installed more than 18,000 MW of wind capacity worldwide. The annual equivalent of this energy output amounts to more than 4 million tons of petroleum (TEP) per year and prevents the emission into the atmosphere of nearly 27 million tons of CO2 per year. Gamesa is also one of the world's leading companies in the development, construction and sale of wind farms, with more than 3,600 MW installed and a wind farm project pipeline totalling 22,000 MW at varying stages of development in Europe, America and Asia. With manufacturing plants in Europe, the United States, China and India, Gamesa has an international workforce of more than 6,300 people.
