One of the factories is located in Tianjin, the other in Inner Mongolia, specifically in the northern province of Jilin, where Gamesa opened a 500-MW centre a few months ago dedicated to the assembly of its 2-MW G9X machine. By investing now, Gamesa aims to consolidate its international business, which is becoming a lifeline for the company given the stagnation of the Spanish market that has led the company implementing several lay-off proceedings over the past two years and closing its Alsasua blade plant. Moreover, in the first quarter of 2011, although Gamesa increased its global sales by 24%, it reported zero sales in Spain.
Committing to a programme of internationalisation is therefore becoming the natural choice for the Spanish company; and China, the most coveted market. 43% of new wind capacity installed worldwide in the first six months of 2011 – eight gigawatts (a half-year record for the industry) – was installed in China. In addition, the Beijing government plans to boost the deployment of offshore wind by five gigawatts (five thousand megawatts) over the next five years. According to statements by the Association of Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association, China also aims to top the wind energy league tables in 2020 with 30 GW connected.
In light of these plans, it is easy to understand Gamesa’s interest in China where it aims to introduce a new five-megawatt offshore turbine, the G11X, over the next two years. The model is an offshore adaptation of its existing G10X onshore machine, which has a nameplate capacity of 4.5 MW. In turn, Gamesa is also working to develop its 6-7 MW G14X offshore turbine, which is scheduled for launch in 2014.
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