The wind turbine plant, which opened this morning, is located in the Brazilian state of Bahia and will have an output capacity of 300 MW per year.
The Global Technology Centre will be located in Taubaté (Brazil) where the company has its largest hydro factory in the world. Technology coming out of the centre is expected to serve both the Brazilian domestic market and export markets.
The opening of the new wind turbine facility is part of Alstom’s global strategy of reinforcing the presence of renewable solutions in the energy mix and investing in developing countries.
Alstom already holds the leadership in the hydro power plant market, where it accounts for around 25 percent of the world’s generation capacity and close to 40 percent of the Brazilian market.
“Today, Alstom reinforces its strategy of investing in renewable power and proves great interest in expanding markets, such as Brazil. This is just the beginning of a path we want to follow in the wind industry in Brazil and over Latin America”, said Patrick Kron, Chairman and CEO of Alstom, at the inauguration.
The ceremony was attended by top Brasilian officials such as Jaques Wagner, Governor of the State of Bahia, and around 150 participants including customers, business partners and authorities.
The company has been steadily developing its wind technologies, offerings and industrial footprint. It has already installed or is installing over 2,200 turbines in over 120 wind plants globally, equivalent to a total capacity of over 3,000 MW.
This new plant has been built according to the LEED certification and will be dedicated to the assembly of the ECO 86 turbines, adapted for the medium to high wind conditions and for the complex coastal geography of the region.
The plant will also manufacture the ECO 100 turbines, which has already over 350 MW installed or under construction around the world and over 200,000 accumulated hours of operation since 2008.
The technology centre will have a particular focus on Kaplan turbines, and will be composed of an R&D team and a test rig.
The R&D team will start its activities in Taubaté early 2012 and the test rig is expected to be operational on mid 2013. R&D specialists from France will work together with Brazilians during the first years of implementation. After this transition period, it is expected to have only Brazilian professionals, improving national know-how and investing in local empowerment, the company said in a written statement.
“With this Global Technology Centre in Taubaté, Alstom will put Brazil in the map of the countries that are reference in technology and responsible for exporting knowledge,” said Philippe Delleur, President of Alstom Brazil.
“We are willing to give more visibility to Brazilian engineering capabilities and to show all the innovative potential of Brazil. The Technology Centre will also be a way to establish long term relationship with local universities, to sponsor research programs and to invest in developments in partnership with students,” Delleur said.
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