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Areva and Gamesa have agreed to form a joint venture in the offshore wind market
Areva and Gamesa sign agreement for JV
Gamesa and Areva have signed binding agreements for the creation of a joint venture (JV) in the offshore wind sector following talks between the companies that were initiated in January 2014. The new company will have a 2.8 gigawatt (GW) pipeline of orders and hopes to secure a market share of close to 20 per cent in Europe by 2020. Closing of the transaction is expected by the fourth quarter of 2014, subject to approval by the French
Following an international competition, the Carbon Trust’s Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA) has awarded contracts to three cable manufacturers to help commercialise the development of 66kV offshore windfarm intra- array cables. It is providing funding of £400,000 (£133,000 to each cable manufacturer) to accelerate the time to market of the cables for use in the large-
6 I Offshore Wind Journal I 3rd Quarter 2014
Government and the relevant competition authorities in Europe and other jurisdictions. The 50/50 joint venture will combine both companies’ technical and manufacturing expertise and extensive track record in the wind industry. Areva has a 630 megawatt (MW) installed base in the offshore wind market. Gamesa brings its technical knowhow, underpinned by a 20-year track record in the wind energy value chain, including its
Carbon Trust funding 66kV cabling cost-reduction effort
scale UK Round 3 offshore windfarms. Testing of two of the new cable designs is due to be completed as early as the end of 2015. The OWA identified the potential for higher voltage electrical arrays to deliver significant cost benefits to the design of future offshore windfarms. It was found that moving to 66kV can demonstrate a material improvement
in lifecycle costs compared with 33kV. Moving to the higher voltage becomes even more attractive as wind turbines continue to increase in size – and it should also allow intra-array cable lengths to be reduced. The Carbon Trust has calculated that a move to 66kV cables could cut the cost of offshore wind energy by 1.5 per cent, which equates ›››
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5MW offshore wind turbine. For its part, Areva has 5MW and 8MW offshore turbines and a 2.8GW pipeline, the offshore market’s second largest.
In a statement, the companies said they would work on the optimisation of Areva’s M5000 as well as Gamesa’s 5.0MW turbine. The joint venture will also continue to develop Areva’s 8MW unit. The JV will also benefit from a 1GW pipeline it has secured in France’s offshore Round 2, which will see a total of 8MW installed by 2021. The new company’s general manager will be Arnaud Bellanger, current executive vice president, offshore wind at Areva.
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