Renewable power company signs deal with Chinese turbine maker

Ireland’s Mainstream Renewable Power and Chinese wind turbine maker Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co have formed a 50-50 joint venture to build a 70 megawatt wind farm in Chile, the firms said yesterday.

Construction of the first 70MW phase of the Ckani wind farm in northern Chile should start by the end of this year, and it has the potential to have a capacity of 240MW capacity on stream by 2015, the companies said in a statement.

The value of the project is $480 million (€365m), while the first phase is worth $140 million.

Under the terms of the deal, Goldwind’s Chicago-based subsidiary will supply 47 1.5 MW wind turbines. Goldwind is China’s second-largest maker of wind power equipment, and the deal is its second with Mainstream in Chile.

Goldwind also secured a deal to supply turbines to a 16.5MW wind project in Ecuador in 2011.

China’s top wind turbine makers are increasingly looking to export their equipment overseas to boost sales amid sliding turbine prices and challenging market conditions at home.

“Strategic collaboration with China is core to Mainstream’s global strategy,” said Mainstream chief executive Eddie O’Connor.

“Mainstream has over 15,000MW of wind and solar projects globally, and our Chinese partners have the world-leading technology, which is ready to deploy cost-effectively and at scale,” he says.

Reuters