Nordex continuing sales success in Italy

Contract for 60 MW wind farm signed / Order value EUR 80 million.
Nordex AG has received its largest Italian order to date. In a project worth around EUR 80 million, Nordex will be supplying the “Minervino Murge” wind farm in the Puglia region. The wind farm is owned by Eolo 3W Minervino Murge Srl a subsidiary of Falck Renewables Limited. The contract provides for the delivery of 26 N90/2300 kW turbines. With a height of 125 metres, the turbines will ensure optimal use of the prevailing wind conditions. Located at an elevation of almost 600 metres, the turbines will produce approximately 100 million kilowatt/hours a year, sufficient to supply around 40,000 households. At the same time, the wind farm will avoid around 86,000 tons of CO2 emissions annually.

“In addition to the technology, the many years of favorable collaboration with Falck Renewables were of decisive importance for this contract,” explains Carsten Pedersen, COO Sales and Marketing at Nordex. Nordex is already building three large projects for Falck Renewables in the UK with the similar turbine models for a combined capacity of 125 megawatts. Falck Renewables a subsidiary of the Italy-based group Falck SpA develops and operates numerous wind farms in the UK, France, Spain and Italy. Falck Renewables Italia has a capacity of around 350 MW under development with local partners.

Work on “Minervino Murge” is to commence in April, with the wind farm to go into operation at the end of February 2008. Explains Pedersen: “As Italy is increasingly evolving into an important market for us and we want to build up to 140 MW of new capacity for our customer this year, we have strengthened the personnel resources of our Milan-based subsidiary in the project management and all-important after-sales service segments.”

With an installed capacity of more than 2,100 MW, Italy is the largest wind power market in Europe after Germany, Spain and Denmark. As well as this, the remuneration system currently provides for one of the highest rates for electricity produced from wind power.