EDF Energies Nouvelles and DONG Energy join forces to respond to the French call for tenders.

PARIS - (France) - 05/07/2011 - 3B Conseils & Marine Renewable Energy ltd
Original Article by  Francis Rousseau. English translation by Christopher Longmore

According to a press release of 4th July, EDF Nouvelles Energies announced announced an exclusive partnership agreement with  DONG Energy, a leading player in the offshore wind fram industry. This agreement is a part of the call for tenders process that the French government is on the point of publishing for an offshore wind farm. Dong brings to the partnership over 20 years experience as a pioneer specialising in the industry in north Europe. To date they have built more offshore wind farms than any other company. Their portfolio is of a capacity in excess of  1 000 MW  with 12 farms operational and a further 1,300Mw under construction.

for Yvon André, Managing Director of ’EDF Energies Nouvelles, the purpose of this agreement is absolutely clear: "We are delighted to have a partnerhip with a well-established Euroean partner for the coming French wind farm tenders and to benefit from their long experience of the industry with ours". This exclusive partnership allows the combination of know-how and investment capacity of the two groups in the context of a common framework where EDF EN is the majority shareholder  "with the intention of guaranteeing the technical and financial strength of the projects when responding to the the French government tender requests".

This partnership follows on from the exclusive deal signed with Alstom  Power for the supply of wind turbines in January 2011, mentionned here on  21/01/2011. 

According to the agreement between Alstom and EDF Energies Nouvelles last January, Alstom is to be the exclusive supplier of 6Mw offshore wind turbines to be marketed from 2013. Since the signing of that agreement, Alstom Wind - holder of the  ALSTOM PURE TORQUE™ patent has been extremely active in the construciton of this unit, presented at their site as being supreme in its class. (Photo on left).

The 6 MW ALSTOM PURE TORQUE™ wind turbine claims three strong points: robustness; simplicity; and efficiency. The unique design of the ALSTOM PURE TORQUE™ 6MW protects the generator and improves the performance, safely diverting excess wind stress on the turbine to the supporting tower via the main chassis. The turbine has a innovatory permanent magnet generatordeveloped by Converteam (technical details here). Overall, the turbine has fewer moving parts than other turbines, and that increases its reliability and availability, while significantly reducing its maintenance costs. The ALSTOM PURE TORQUE™ 6 MW claims a 40% increase in electricity generation per kg of material used compared to other turbines curretly operational at sea. With 73.50m blades made by LM Wind Power, a prototype will be installed at sea towards the end of this year/beginning of next. The pre-series will be produced in 2013, with commsercial production starting in 2014.  The turbine and the mast will be fixed to a giant jacket type foundation somewhat in the manner of a candle in a candlestick.

Alstom has placed a video demo of this wonder of the seas at r You Tube partially built in Barcelona.

Dong's corporate headquarters are in Denmark.Their activities encompass the generation, distribution and trading of energy. During 2010, the Group generated revenues of DKK55 billion (€7.3 billion) and it has 6,000 employees.


EDF Energies Nouvelles has operations in Europe and North America, and is a market leader in green electricity production. With a development focused on wind energy for several years and more recently on solar photovoltaic, the Group is also present in other segments of the renewable energies market: small hydro, marine energy, biomass, biofuel and biogas. In addition, the Group is expanding in the distributed renewable energies sector. EDF Energies Nouvelles is a subsidiary of the EDF Group.


Sources. Sites linked and quoted. All Photos = Eolienne ALSTOM PURE TORQUE™6MW © ALSTOM, EDF and offshorewind

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