Wind turbine maker Gamesa (GAM.MC) said it plans to triple its manufacturing investment in China through 2012.
Gamesa, which by 2009 had invested a total of EUR 42 million on facilities in China, plans to invest more than EUR 90 million, bringing its cumulative investments to more than EUR 130 million for manufacturing land-based and offshore wind turbines.
During a conference on the Chinese wind energy market jointly organised by Gamesa and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), Gamesa Chairman Jorge Calvet said one of Gamesa’s goals is to cement its position as one of the top five players in the Chinese wind energy industry.
Gamesa’s forecasts indicate that in 2011, the Chinese market will account for more than 30% of the total megawatts (MW) sold (vs. 15% in 2009), which will entail nearly doubling sales in China within two years–between 800 MW and 1,000 MW–according to the latest forecasts the company has issued for total sales in 2011.
Gamesa’s chairman also announced that the company has broken ground on its sixth manufacturing center in China, a factory in the province of Inner Mongolia, one of China’s leading hubs for wind energy development. The factory is designed for the assembly of nacelles for the G8X-2 MW turbine model, and will have annual production capacity totalling 500 MW. The plant is set to begin operating in 2011.
This news comes four months after Gamesa celebrated the groundbreaking of its fifth manufacturing plant in China (equipped with annual production capacity of 500 MW of G8X-2 MW wind turbines) in the city of Da’an, in Jilin Province (in northwest China).
In addition to the two factories currently under construction, Gamesa has four manufacturing centres (blades, nacelle, generators and gearbox assembly) in the province of Tianjin, home to the company’s largest manufacturing base outside of Spain.
When Jilin and Inner Mongolia come online in 2011, Gamesa’s production capacity in China will total 1,500 MW per year.
Gamesa in recent months also began supplying and installing the first 62 turbines of a total of 96 units of its new 2-MW model for Chinese corporation Longyuan.
Gamesa has also installed more than 2,000 of its Gamesa model G5X-850 kW turbines at more than 60 sites in China.
Gamesa also operates as a wind farm developer in China. As of June 2010, Gamesa had a wind farm project pipeline in China totalling 2,675 MW at varying stages of development, but this figure has climbed to 3,185 MW in the past two months, the company said.
The company recently signed new strategic agreements to develop and supply 1,315.3 MW of wind capacity between 2010 and 2013. The agreements, which Gamesa signed with two of China’s largest power companies, Guangdong Nuclear Wind and Datang Renewable Power, call for the company to supply its Gamesa G8X-2.0 MW and G5X-850 kW turbine systems.
Gamesa and Guangdong will jointly develop and build wind farms in the provinces of Liaoning (576 MW) and Heilongjiang (450 MW), at which Gamesa will also install the G8X-2.0 MW turbines it will manufacture at its plants in China. This will not be the first time the two companies have worked together to develop wind projects. Gamesa and Guangdong Nuclear Wind in early 2010 began operating their first two wind farms in Taipingshan and Tangwangshan.
Meanwhile, in conjunction with Datang Renewable Power, Gamesa will develop and build another 289.5 MW in Liaoning, where Gamesa will install both its G8X-2.0 MW and G5X-850 kW wind turbines.
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