According to Unison’s spokesman Kim Jong Min, the South Korean company is expecting to sign a MOU with the Fuxin city administration in China’s Liaoning province to supply it with 1,000 of its 2 MW turbines as from next year, and may build a Won 20 billion (€11.3 million) plant in China to produce them locally.
The deal to supply 2,000 MW of wind turbines may be worth as much as Won 4 trillion (€2.3 billion), Wang Jingjing, an official at the Fuxin city development and reform commission's wind power department told Bloomberg.
Fuxin plans to install 4 GW of wind power between now and 2020 and expects to develop a wind industry cluster by attracting power plants and large wind turbine markers such as Goldwind. Meanwhile, Liaoning province currently has an installed wind capacity of 1.2 GWand is ranked second in China.
"China is one of the fastest growing markets in terms of installed wind capacity," Shi Jingli, an official from the National Development and Reform Commission, told Bloomberg. "Unison is attracted by China's promising market, and its close geographical proximity to Liaoning is another factor in the investment plan for the plant in Fuxin."
"The Chinese government is encouraging foreign wind turbine producers to make products locally, so foreign producers always build plants for assembly, and usually import key components from their own countries. The short distance could reduce transportation cost," she said.
China plans to invest at least Yuan 100 billion to more than double its wind-power capacity by 2010 from last year's figure and this agreement with Unison is part of this effort.
Unison completed development of its low-speed gear ratio 2 MW wind turbine in October 2007; acquiring design certification from Germanischer Lloyd a month later. It erected a prototype in Taebaek, Gangwon (South Korea) in January of this year and expects to acquire type certification by the end of 2009 with a view to starting serial production early 2010. The fully encapsulated PM synchronous generator used in Unison's 2 MW turbine is particularly suitable for use in remote areas with weak electricity grids.
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