A wind farm in France using the world’s most powerful onshore wind turbine has been inaugurated by Energias de Portugal Renovaveis (EDPR) and Alstom Power.
The wind farm, at Vieux Moulin near Pithiviers, will generate enough electricity for 12 000 homes using Alstom’s Ecotècnia 100, the highest capacity production-line onshore wind turbine available. It is due to be fully operational in mid-October 2009.
The Ecotècnia 100 is the result of Alstom’s investment in wind turbine research and development and exploits the fact that a wind farm using a small number of large wind turbines will generate more electricity from a given land area than a farm of a larger number of small turbine units. Each 3 MW turbine stands 140 m high and has a rotor diameter of 100 m.
Alstom is currently working on the development of the larger Ecotècnia 110 turbine.
“Alstom’s investment in R&D has enabled the group to develop a wind power technology that gives our customers better availability of the equipment over the long term. It also enables us to meet the current needs of the European market and, in the future, those of the world market,” said Philippe Cochet, Alstom Wind’s Senior Vice President.
The Vieux Moulin wind farm is the twelfth wind farm to be equipped by Alstom in France and lies in the Essonne Valley, where average recorded wind speeds are 7.5 m/s. When operational, it will avoid the production of 42 000 t/year of carbon dioxide.
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